Legal Features

U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services v. State of Florida

The Rutherford Institute has filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that will determine whether the major overhaul of the nation’s healthcare financing system adopted by Congress in 2010 will survive. The Institute’s brief in U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services v. State of Florida asks the Court to strike down the “Individual Mandate” provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which requires almost all Americans to purchase health insurance, as an unwarranted and unprecedented exercise of power by the federal government. Arguing that by enacting the Individual Mandate “Congress has intruded on individuals’ rights to make private decisions about their own health and in the process has disrupted the federal-state balance” of power, Rutherford Institute attorneys have asked the Supreme Court to uphold a lower court ruling that the Individual Mandate is an improper exercise by Congress of its authority to regulate interstate commerce.

The brief in U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services v. State of Florida is available here.