Synopses & Reviews
Foreword by Randy E. BarnettIn 2012, the United States Supreme Court became the center of the political world. In a dramatic and unexpected 54 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts voted on narrow grounds to save the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Unprecedented tells the inside story of how the challenge to Obamacare raced across all three branches of government, and narrowly avoided a constitutional collision between the Supreme Court and President Obama.
On November 13, 2009, a group of Federalist Society lawyers met in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., to devise a legal challenge to the constitutionality of President Obamas legacy”his healthcare reform. It seemed a very long shot, and was dismissed peremptorily by the White House, much of Congress, most legal scholars, and all of the media. Two years later the fight to overturn the Affordable Care Act became a political and legal firestorm. When, finally, the Supreme Court announced its ruling, the judgment was so surprising that two cable news channels misreported it and announced that the Act had been declared unconstitutional.
Unprecedented offers unrivaled inside access to how key decisions were made in Washington, based on interviews with over one hundred of the people who lived this journeyincluding the academics who began the challenge, the attorneys who litigated the case at all levels, and Obama administration attorneys who successfully defended the law. It reads like a political thriller, provides the definitive account of how the Supreme Court almost struck down President Obamas unprecedented” law, and explains what this decision means for the future of the Constitution, the limits on federal power, and the Supreme Court.
Review
Excellent.”
Wall Street JournalBlackman has written a deeply researched, highly readable account of the conservative challenge to the ACA, which, as a recent law graduate, he witnessed from the inside.” American Prospect
A young legal scholar delivers an impressive blow-by-blow account of the court battle to defeat the Affordable Care Act
With his strong connections among the conservative and libertarian lawyers who mounted the constitutional challenge and his talent for translating arcane legal-speak, Blackman more than capably captures this dramatic constitutional showdown.” Kirkus Reviews
Blackman, law professor, blogger, and representative of a coalition of independent business interests opposed to the program, spent more than two years following the legislative process that produced Obamacare and the legal challenges to the program. Blackman argues that the process was unprecedented in many ways
Blackman also explores the significance of the decision as a galvanizing issue for conservatives and future implications for challenges to government power.” Booklist
Blackman does a stellar job of calling out both parties for their flip-flopping with respect to the individual mandate.” Publishers Weekly
Riveting.” The Weekly Standard
It provides a granular account of how the legal - and political - battle over the Affordable Care Act was joined, and how so much about the fight departed from past pattern
[Blackman] is a bit of a legal polymath. He can, with seeming ease, assimilate disparate streams of legal analyses, facts, political events, and government policy in service of his arguments.” Philadelphia Inquirer
Synopsis
This inside story of the legal challenge to Obamacare from a conservative constitutional lawyer involved in the movement is a brilliant mixture of legal, political and media intrigue capped by a truly consequential Supreme Court decision.
Synopsis
Foreword by Randy E. BarnettThis inside story of the battle to kill the Affordable Care Act shows how close it came to succeeding, producing a ruling that may limit the federal government for years to come
On November 13, 2009, Josh Blackman and a group of Federalist Society lawyers gathered in a Washington, D.C. hotel to devise a legal challenge to Obamacare. It seemed a very long shot and was dismissively ignored by the White House, much of Congress, and all of the media. Two years later, the fight to overturn the Affordable Care Act had grown fierce and the governments case was tottering. When, finally, the Supreme Court announced its ruling their judgment was so surprising that two cable news channels misunderstood it and announced that the act had been deemed unconstitutional.
Only the supple logic of the Chief Justice who voted to confirm the Act allowed the law to stand. Roberts sidestepped the expansive and controversial Commerce Clause upholding instead the governments right to tax, a far narrower standard for the decision. As Blackman shows in Unprecedented, Chief Justice Roberts may have allowed the passage of the act, but he has given conservatives a truly powerful weapon for the future.
About the Author
Josh Blackman is an assistant professor of law at the South Texas College of Law and president of the Harlan Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about the Supreme Court and the Constitution. He has published over a dozen law review articles about constitutional law, written numerous op-eds, and been interviewed about the Supreme Court by the New York Times, CNN, ABC News Radio, Reuters, The National Law Journal, the American Bar Association Journal, and Yahoo! News. The American Bar Association Journal selected his personal blog as one of its top 100 Legal Blogs. He also runs FantasySCOTUS.net.
Table of Contents
Authors Note
Foreword by Randy Barnett
Introduction
Part I, The Once and Future Mandate (October 2, 1989January 20, 2009)
Part II, Unprecedented (January 21, 2009March 23, 2010)
Part III, Regulating Inactivity (March 22, 2010January 31, 2011)
Part IV, Coercing the States (February 1, 2011November 13, 2011)
Part V, In the Supreme Court (November 14, 2011March 22, 2012)
Part VI, Still in the Supreme Court (March 23, 2012March 28, 2012)
Part VII, Outside the Supreme Court (March 29, 2012June 27, 2012)
Part VIII, Judgment Day (June 28, 2012)
Part IX, The Switch in Time that Saved Nine (June 29, 2012January 21, 2013)
Epilogue
Index