We are continuing our work on an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court which is considering our recent federal health care legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Faculty and students at Boston University Law School have asked JALSA consideration and cooperation on an amicus brief to be submitted that would deal with some of the libertarian issues underlining the suit. “Implicit in many of the lower courts’ opinions invalidating the individual mandate, including the Eleventh Circuit’s, is a concern that the mandate threatens individual liberty. This sense that the mandate represents a serious imposition on personal freedom has driven much of the popular and judicial debate on the mandate’s constitutionality under the Commerce Clause, but the government has not addressed the argument.”

JALSA will argue that health care is a communal responsibility and that the federal government is not taking away personal liberty when it allows citizens to select from a choice of health care options.