Robert G. Natelson: Independence Institute files unique Supreme Court brief in Obamacare case.

Professor Natelson notes:

We have just filed an amicus curiae (”friend of the court”) brief with the Supreme Court arguing that (1) under current Supreme Court rulings, Obamacare’s individual mandate, if it can be justified at all, must be justified under the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause, and (2) scholarly research into the meaning of the Necessary and Proper Clause shows that it is not broad enough to empower Congress to adopt the mandate.

The brief is based largely on a recent book I co-authored with three noted constitutional scholars, Gary Lawson, Geoffrey Miller, and Guy Seidman [Ed.: The Origins of the Necessary and Proper Clause, Cambridge University Press, 2010].   All four of us have disparate political views, but all of our research converged on the issue of what the Founders intended the Necessary and Proper Clause to mean.

Posted at 11:00 PM