Elizabeth Price Foley: The Implication of the Individual Mandate is Unlimited

In a brief video, constitutional law professor Elizabeth Price Foley discusses the Institute for Justice’s amicus brief, which she co-authored, on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) for the U.S. Supreme Court. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s always been the case under Anglo-American law that contracts have to be willing, they have to be based on the voluntary, mutual assent of the parties. So you cannot coerce a contract, and there are many doctrines that support this idea from fraud, to incapacity, to duress. . .

In theory, if this individual mandate is upheld the government can impose any other kind of contractual relationship against your will. So for example, they could force you to enter into a contract of employment for the rest of your life, they could force you to join a union, they could force you to enter into a contract with a landlord, or a mortgage company. Literally the implications are unlimited.

Well worth a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/v/BuvkXqE8HDw

Also check out ObamaCare v. the Constitution by Paul J. Beard II.

Related:

• ObamaCare v. the Constitution
• Mandatory Health Insurance: Wrong for Massachusetts, Wrong for America
• Health Care and the Separation of Charity and State
• Moral Health Care vs. “Universal Health Care”
• Obama's Atomic Bomb: The Ideological Clarity of the Democratic Agenda
• Book Review: The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law by Timothy Sandefur

About Joshua Lipana

Joshua (John M.) Lipana was, until his death in 2013, an assistant editor of The Objective Standard Blog and a freelance writer based in the Philippines. His writings appeared in numerous print and online publications, including Free Enterprise,Capitalism Magazine, NewsReal Blog, and The American Thinker.

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