What the Court has wrought: the coming Medicaid wars

by Armando for Daily Kos

The opinion of the Supreme Court (PDF) regarding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act has mostly drawn attention to the individual mandate. Five justices of the Supreme Court, the four less conservative justices plus the author of the opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts, found that the individual mandate was a valid exercise of Congress' taxing power. I myself have focused much attention on the views expressed by the five conservative justices regarding Congress' power under the Commerce and Necessary and Proper powers and the threat these views may pose to our conception of our modern national government as established by the New Deal and court decisions of the era.