Health Care Question

Mon Mar 22 11:42:42 PDT 2010

As you suggest, I think they're already in the business of drawing this sort
of distinction--see, e.g., DeShaney.  And, sure, philosophy would help.  I'm
certainly in favor of philosophy PhDs being seen as an important credential
for law-teaching jobs.

  _____  

From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Sanford Levinson
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 1:10 PM
To: Steven Jamar
Cc: CONLAWPROFS professors
Subject: RE: Health Care Question

Will any court considering such claims ultimately have to decide such basic
philosophical questions as the "killing" v. "letting die" distinction, which
rests, of course, on the notion that only the first is an "activity," while
the latter is something else?  If it's true that judges are going to get
into such issues -which also, of course, are at the heart of the bed of
quicksand called the "state action doctrine"-then shouldn't those future
judges called law students be required to take serious courses in philosophy
so that they might be aware of the complexities and not sound like the
hopeless amateurs they, of course, are?  

sandy

From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Steven Jamar
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 12:59 PM
Cc: CONLAWPROFS professors
Subject: Re: Health Care Question

Buying and not buying health insurance is clearly just as much an economic
activity as growing or not growing (or eating what you grow) wheat.
Aggregate all the health insurance purchases together, and you have a
substantial impact.  That is Wickard -- of course one can read it narrowly
and distinguish it.  

But clearly health care system and insurance issues affect interstate
commerce in a very substantial way, in the aggregate.

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 1:49 PM, Christopher Green <crgreen at olemiss.edu>
wrote:

The key argument distinguishing Wickard is that failing to buy health
insurance isn't an "activity."  Wickard's key holding, 317 U.S. at 125, is
that "even if appellee's activity be local and though it may not be regarded
as commerce, it may still, whatever its nature, be reached by Congress if it
exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce and this
irrespective of whether such effect is what might at some earlier time have
been defined as 'direct' or 'indirect.' "  Limiting the consumption of
home-grown wheat is different from a mandate to buy insurance.

  _____  

From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Steven Jamar
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 11:20 AM
Cc: CONLAWPROFS professors
Subject: Re: Health Care Question

I'm clearly  missing something.  I thought Wickard was still good law.  And
I thought the whole, comprehensive scheme was benefit enough.  I am
unfamiliar with the need for the federal government to bribe each person
individually. 

As I said, I'm clearly missing something.

Steve

On Mar 22, 2010, at 10:03 AM, Eric Segall wrote:

How many people think Justice Kennedy would uphold a federal requirement
that every citizen has to buy health insurance without the requirement being
tied to a federal benefit of some kind?

Wouldn't this implicate his libertarian tendencies?

Eric Segall
Profesor of Law
Georgia State College of Law
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-- 

Prof. Steven D. Jamar                     vox:  202-806-8017

Associate Director, Institute of Intellectual Property and Social Justice
http://iipsj.org

Howard University School of Law           fax:  202-806-8567

http://iipsj.com/SDJ/

"It is by education I learn to do by choice, what other men do by the
constraint of fear."

Aristotle

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-- 
Prof. Steven Jamar
Howard University School of Law
Associate Director, Institute of Intellectual Property and Social Justice
(IIPSJ) Inc.

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