11-393 - National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius - Supreme Court case

Описание: The case of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius represents one of the most significant constitutional litigations in modern American history. At the heart of the dispute is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system. Two specific parts of the law drew intense legal fire from twenty-six states and several private organizations. The first is the "individual mandate," a requirement that nearly all citizens purchase health insurance or face a financial penalty. The second is a massive expansion of the Medicaid program, which required states to cover a significantly larger portion of their low-income populations or risk losing their entire federal Medicaid budget.The petitioners argued that the federal government had overstepped its constitutional boundaries. They contended that the Commerce Clause, which allows Congress to regulate interstate trade, does not give the government the power to force people to buy a private product they do not want. Furthermore, the states argued that the Medicaid expansion was "gun to the head" federalism, essentially blackmailing sovereign states into expanding their social programs by threatening to cut off billions of dollars in existing aid. The legal question before the Supreme Court is whether the Constitution’s grant of power to tax and regulate commerce is broad enough to support these mandates, or if the ACA represents an unprecedented and unlawful expansion of federal authority over the lives of individuals and the sovereignty of the states.