Legal opinions or editorials on health care reform

JebusUD

I am looking for any kind of legal opinion, case law, or editorial which may show which way the upcoming supreme court case on health care reform might go. I am most interested in the commerce clause issues with the individual mandate.

Any sources will do, but sources about whether or not the federal government can compel economic activity would be most appreciated.

Lesser known sources, or tips on where to find sources, would also be appreciated. I am already aware of the following landmark cases:

US v. Lopez
Wickard v. Filburn
Gonzalez v. Raich
US v. Morrison
Gibbons v. Ogden
All of the recent rulings by lower level courts, including the Florida, Michigan, and Virginia rulings.

Thanks in advance.

kaliyama

You've mostly cited recent cases. If you want to feel you feel informed about things I would check out a textbook or secondary source about constitutional law that gives you a sense of development over time. While sometimes text speaks for itself, it's how cases are interpreted and used. is equally relevant A textbook would be more expensive and less useful to you than Erwin Chemerinsky's Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies.

JebusUD

Gibbons v Ogden and Wickard v Filburn are actually pretty old now.

I am taking a con law course right now, so I have a feel for the background of the Commerce Clause.

What I am looking for is mostly any insight into how it might be interpreted in the upcoming trial, something that I may not have thought of. I have been pouring over case law of landmark cases, but it haven't come up with anything yet.

RUNN1NGMAN

Do you have access to a database of law review articles? There's probably been about 100 published in the last year that are directly on topic.

Also check out The Volokh Conspiracy. There have been a lot of posts about this topic and the conspirators cover pretty much the entire spectrum of legal scholarship. A lot of the posts are essentially rough drafts of law review articles and op-eds they are working on. Lots of good links to other articles and references.

Deebaser

RUNN1NGMAN wrote: »

Do you have access to a database of law review articles? There's probably been about 100 published in the last year that are directly on topic.

Indeed. Get thee to Lexis-Nexis. Your school has a subscription. Stop by the library and ask them about it.

WeAre138

Hein Online as well, at least inre: law review articles. I take it you aren't in law school (which is really great for you, trust me), but law reviews among other sources give you a decent summary of the ideas within the universe of case law and generally point out where law is heading, where it might go where it can't go, where it should, etc...

Commerce clause is pretty powerful stuff, Wickard is indeed old but its principal is important. Aggregate effects of personal, intrastate choices can be held to affect interstate commerce as a whole (nonsense, if you ask me). But this might speak to any state action against reforms people argue must be allowed because they only affect citizens of that state. Raich is an extension of this, but is delivered more forcefully because SCOTUS don't like to "party."

Basically, some poor bastard in a law library has already done the question/answer/research you are looking for. Don't make him think it was for all nothing http://heinonline.org/ You can look any articles up too vis-a-vis West Law/LexisNexis, as was mentioned above. Talk to a librarian and make sure to say please/thank-you, bat your eyes, try and fuck her in the copy room. Book worms love dat shit.

JebusUD

Just wanted to update with some of what I have found.

The very best stuff I have found so far is this

http://www.pennumbra.com/debates/pdfs/HealthyDebate.pdf

It is a debate between law professors, with the argument, counter argument, then closing argument, and counter closing argument.

Because of the way it is written it is really great. Easy to follow.