The Individual Mandate, Taxation, and the Constitution

The Individual Mandate, Taxation, and the Constitution PDF Author: Erik M. Jensen
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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This article examines the Supreme Court's 2012 decision in National Federation of Business v. Sibelius (NFIB). That case held that the individual mandate penalty in the Obamacare legislation will be a tax and not a penalty, and that the penalty will therefore be constitutional under the Taxing Clause of the Constitution, even though a majority of the Court held that the mandate itself -- the requirement to acquire insurance or pay the tax/penalty -- was not a valid exercise of the commerce power. The result in the case was not necessarily a surprise, but the reliance on the taxing power was. This article discusses the understanding of the taxing power reflected in NFIB; describes what Chief Justice Roberts did not say about the scope of that power; and considers what the decision means for future exercises of congressional power, concluding that NFIB is unlikely to cause Congress to abuse the taxing power.

The Individual Mandate, Taxation, and the Constitution

The Individual Mandate, Taxation, and the Constitution PDF Author: Erik M. Jensen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This article examines the Supreme Court's 2012 decision in National Federation of Business v. Sibelius (NFIB). That case held that the individual mandate penalty in the Obamacare legislation will be a tax and not a penalty, and that the penalty will therefore be constitutional under the Taxing Clause of the Constitution, even though a majority of the Court held that the mandate itself -- the requirement to acquire insurance or pay the tax/penalty -- was not a valid exercise of the commerce power. The result in the case was not necessarily a surprise, but the reliance on the taxing power was. This article discusses the understanding of the taxing power reflected in NFIB; describes what Chief Justice Roberts did not say about the scope of that power; and considers what the decision means for future exercises of congressional power, concluding that NFIB is unlikely to cause Congress to abuse the taxing power.

The Individual Mandate and the Taxing Power

The Individual Mandate and the Taxing Power PDF Author: Erik M. Jensen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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This article, prepared for a symposium at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, considers whether the Taxing Clause provides an alternative constitutional basis, as some have recently argued, for the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 - the requirement, going into effect in 2014, that most individuals acquire satisfactory health insurance or pay a penalty. The article concludes that the Taxing Clause arguments are misguided. At best, the Clause can provide authority for the penalty, not for the mandate as a whole. Furthermore, the article questions whether the penalty will be a tax at all - if not, the Taxing Clause is obviously irrelevant - or, if it will be a tax, whether constitutional limitations on the taxing power will be satisfied. In particular, the article takes seriously whether the penalty might be a capitation tax, a form of direct tax that would have to meet an onerous apportionment rule to be valid. And the article argues that the penalty will not be a “tax on incomes” exempted from apportionment by the Sixteenth Amendment. The bottom line is this: relying on the Taxing Clause makes the analysis of the individual mandate more complicated than it needs to be, and the focus of constitutional analysis should return to where it has always belonged: the Commerce Clause.

Constitutional Questions Surrounding the Health Care Law's Individual Mandate

Constitutional Questions Surrounding the Health Care Law's Individual Mandate PDF Author: Henchman
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Classifying Federal Taxes for Constitutional Purposes

Classifying Federal Taxes for Constitutional Purposes PDF Author: Gene Magidenko
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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In 2012, ruling on a challenge to President Obama's landmark healthcare legislation, the Supreme Court upheld the legislation's individual mandate penalty as a tax. The Court's decision relied in part on the finding that the penalty was not a direct tax and so its lack of apportionment was not fatal. This was the first Supreme Court case in decades to address direct taxes, but regrettably it provided only a cursory examination of the subject. It did, however, serve as a useful reminder that the constitutional analysis of taxes is not a foregone conclusion and confirmed that there is a tenable distinction between direct and indirect taxes. As the national government's expenditures continue to outpace revenues, calls for new forms of federal taxation to right the balance will become more persistent. This pressure leads to the understandable desire to test the outer limits of the federal government's taxation power, with creative minds finding new methods of levying and collecting taxes never contemplated by the Founding Fathers. To adequately assess the validity of any proposed tax and fit it into the constitutional system, it is useful to have a roadmap from which to proceed. This Article seeks to develop such a model. As the examination that follows demonstrates, this is far from straightforward; however, having categorized the tax in question, it is often relatively simple to determine just what one can and cannot do with it. This Article focuses on taxes that may be imposed by the federal government, so constitutional limits on the powers of state taxation will not be addressed. The Article's first part examines the text of the Constitution's tax clauses and the history behind them. The second part surveys the Supreme Court cases interpreting these provisions. The third part outlines a five-category model for classifying taxes for constitutional purposes. The fourth and final part examines how this model applies to selected taxes proposed in recent years.

The Health Insurance Mandate -- A Tax Or a Taking?

The Health Insurance Mandate -- A Tax Or a Taking? PDF Author: Karl M. Manheim
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires Americans to have or buy health insurance. The “individual mandate” was upheld in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, as an exercise of Congress' tax power. While Congress often uses its tax power to reward desired purchases, it has never before imposed a tax for failure to buy. Some inactions can be taxed; others cannot (e.g., refusal to go to church). If there is a constitutional right not to consume private goods, a tax on those who decline might violate the Takings Clause. NFIB did not address other constitutional problems with the mandate. This article explores whether a consumption mandate is a novel form of “taking,” and whether the option to pay a tax instead is a constitutional alternative. It is a close question and provides an opportunity to examine recent takings cases involving the imposition of monetary burdens.

Farmer's Tax Guide

Farmer's Tax Guide PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Restoring the Lost Constitution

Restoring the Lost Constitution PDF Author: Randy E. Barnett
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691159734
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
The U.S. Constitution found in school textbooks and under glass in Washington is not the one enforced today by the Supreme Court. In Restoring the Lost Constitution, Randy Barnett argues that since the nation's founding, but especially since the 1930s, the courts have been cutting holes in the original Constitution and its amendments to eliminate the parts that protect liberty from the power of government. From the Commerce Clause, to the Necessary and Proper Clause, to the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, to the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court has rendered each of these provisions toothless. In the process, the written Constitution has been lost. Barnett establishes the original meaning of these lost clauses and offers a practical way to restore them to their central role in constraining government: adopting a "presumption of liberty" to give the benefit of the doubt to citizens when laws restrict their rightful exercises of liberty. He also provides a new, realistic and philosophically rigorous theory of constitutional legitimacy that justifies both interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning and, where that meaning is vague or open-ended, construing it so as to better protect the rights retained by the people. As clearly argued as it is insightful and provocative, Restoring the Lost Constitution forcefully disputes the conventional wisdom, posing a powerful challenge to which others must now respond. This updated edition features an afterword with further reflections on individual popular sovereignty, originalist interpretation, judicial engagement, and the gravitational force that original meaning has exerted on the Supreme Court in several recent cases.

Rethinking the New Deal Court

Rethinking the New Deal Court PDF Author: Barry Cushman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019535401X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Rethinking the New Deal Court: The Structure of a Constitutional Revolution challenges the prevailing account of the Supreme Court of the New Deal era, which holds that in the spring of 1937 the Court suddenly abandoned jurisprudential positions it had staked out in such areas as substantive due process and commerce clause doctrine. In this view, the impetus for such a dramatic reversal was provided by external political pressures manifested in FDR's landslide victory in the 1936 election, and by the subsequent Court-packing crisis. Author Barry Cushman, by contrast, discounts the role that political pressure played in securing this "constitutional revolution." Instead, he reorients study of the New Deal Court by focusing attention on the internal dynamics of doctrinal development and the role of New Dealers in seizing opportunities presented by doctrinal change. Recasting this central story in American constitutional development as a chapter in the history of ideas rather than simply an episode in the history of politics, Cushman offers a thoroughly researched and carefully argued study that recharacterizes the mechanics by which laissez-faire constitutionalism unraveled and finally collapsed during FDR's reign. Identifying previously unseen connections between various lines of doctrine, Cushman charts the manner in which Nebbia v. New York's abandonment of the distinction between public and private enterprise hastened the demise of the doctrinal structure in which that distinction had played a central role.

The Chief

The Chief PDF Author: Joan Biskupic
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465093280
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
An incisive biography of the Supreme Court's enigmatic Chief Justice, taking us inside the momentous legal decisions of his tenure so far. John Roberts was named to the Supreme Court in 2005 claiming he would act as a neutral umpire in deciding cases. His critics argue he has been anything but, pointing to his conservative victories on voting rights and campaign finance. Yet he broke from orthodoxy in his decision to preserve Obamacare. How are we to understand the motives of the most powerful judge in the land? In The Chief, award-winning journalist Joan Biskupic contends that Roberts is torn between two, often divergent, priorities: to carry out a conservative agenda, and to protect the Court's image and his place in history. Biskupic shows how Roberts's dual commitments have fostered distrust among his colleagues, with major consequences for the law. Trenchant and authoritative, The Chief reveals the making of a justice and the drama on this nation's highest court.

The Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act PDF Author: Tamara Thompson
Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0737771496
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to increase health insurance quality and affordability, lower the uninsured rate by expanding insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of healthcare overall. Along with sweeping change came sweeping criticisms and issues. This book explores the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act, and explains who benefits from the ACA. Readers will learn how the economy is affected by the ACA, and the impact of the ACA rollout.