Case Status: Loss. Supreme Court upheld the ACA under Congress's taxing authority.

Florida v. HHS

  • U.S. Supreme Court
“The North Wing upon completion in 1800” by William Russell Birch

CIR Files Brief in ObamaCare Challenge

Together with former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, CIR filed an amicus brief in Florida v. HHS, challenging the individual mandate portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2012, popularly known as “ObamaCare.” The brief challenged the government’s view that Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce includes the power to compel individuals to engage in interstate commerce for the purpose of purchasing health insurance. 

The brief explained that constitutional text and history, 18th Century usage, and early Supreme Court cases all make clear that the power to regulate interstate commerce was understood to mean the power to regulate existing interstate commerce, not compel the creation of new commerce. 

It noted that the government’s expansive view of Congress’s Commerce Clause authority would convert that clause from a grant of a limited, enumerated power into limitless authority to address any inactivity that in the aggregate creates a national problem.

Updates on this case

CIR's Rosman talks Obamacare
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Apr 2012

CIR's Rosman talks Obamacare

Inevitably, the Obamacare litigation in the Supreme Court has occasioned much discussion, and no doubt much understandable confusion, on the…

Supreme Court to hear Obamacare challenges
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Nov 2011

Supreme Court to hear Obamacare challenges

Today the U.S. Supreme Court granted numerous petitions for review of various appellate-court rulings in cases challenging the Affordable…

All sides seek Supreme Court review of Obamacare
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Sep 2011

All sides seek Supreme Court review of Obamacare

Today the Obama administration filed a petition for Supreme Court review of this summer's decision by the Eleventh Circuit Court…

11th Circuit nixes individual mandate
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Aug 2011

11th Circuit nixes individual mandate

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit today struck down the "individual mandate" portion of Obamacare, ruling…

Obamacare threatened by CIR precedent
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May 2011

Obamacare threatened by CIR precedent

CIR filed a brief today in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the State of Florida's challenge…