Supreme Court's "flawed jurisprudence" probably permits mandated purchase of health insurance

Last night's passage of the greatest expansion of the federal government since the Great Society is a sad day for our country, not only because it may bankrupt our future, but also because we have no recourse to the Constitution. Our Constitution was elegantly designed to protect individuals from too much concentration of power in any one source, but the Supreme Court has evolved into a body that has protected and even facilitated the modern regulatory state at the expense of our founding principles. The optimism of state attorneys general and others who hope to challenge the constitutionality of this legislation is admirable, but such challenges are not likely to be successful.

A challenge to the "individual mandate" is perhaps the best legal option available. The health care bill requires certain individuals to purchase health insurance on a government run exchange, a requirement many legal scholars have argued is an unconstitutional expansion of federal power. It not only imposes a duty on individuals to purchase insurance, but it heavily regulates the available options, requiring individuals to engage in economic activity to subsidize an industry on which Congress has conferred special benefits. Imagine the outrage if, in order to promote general economic stability, individuals were required to buy American cars or purchase stock in one of the government's preferred financial institutions.

Despite this patent overreach by Congress, the Supreme Court's flawed jurisprudence on this issue probably permits it.