An unprecedented expansion of federal power

The Institute for Justice (IJ) filed an amicus brief (friend of the court) in the State of Florida court case against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) (commonly referred to as Obamacare).  This brief will be considered during the US Supreme Court review this week.  The IJ brief makes an interesting and unique argument against the individual mandate.  The entire brief is at this link:

http://www.ij.org/images/pdf_folder/amicus_briefs/obamacareamicus.pdf

The IJ brief points out that the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate — the requirement to purchase insurance — is not only an unprecedented expansion of federal power, it also undermines several centuries of contract law.

From Hugo Grotius in the 17th century through William Story in the 19th and up to the present, legal doctrine has held that contracts are not valid unless they are entered into by mutual assent. If one party signs a contract as the result of fraud or under duress, it cannot be valid. But if Congress compels people to buy insurance policies — not as a precondition of exercising a privilege such as driving, but as a consequence of having been born — then, the institute argues, this would undermine centuries of contract law.

IJ has produced a short (2 min 24 sec) video in support of this brief which can be viewed at this link:

http://www.ij.org/freedomflix/65-individualmandatevid

These two paragraphs are from the IJ's brief:

Allowing Congress to compel individuals to enter into contracts against their will would destroy a fundamental precept of contract law and would have a devastating impact on individual liberty.

When combined with the Court’s highly deferential standard of review for exercises of the commerce power, extending that power to include the awesome power to compel would create the very Leviathan government the Founders spilled their blood to resist.