Oral Statement, Hearing on The Constitutionality of the Individual Mandate in the Affordable Care Act
This document is the oral statement given by Dechert partner Steven G. Bradbury to the House Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Health regarding the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act. Dechert recently filed three amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf a group of over one hundred economists (including two Nobel laureates and numerous former senior government officials) in support of the States and private parties challenging the constitutionality of the Act. In striking down the individual mandate, the Eleventh Circuit relied upon a Dechert amicus brief filed on behalf of the same economists, and Dechert’s amicus briefs at the Supreme Court have been closely followed both by court watchers and the parties to the landmark constitutional challenge. Before the Supreme Court, Dechert has filed briefs on the key question whether the individual mandate provision is unconstitutional, as well as on the questions whether the individual mandate is severable from the rest of the Act and whether the Act’s Medicaid expansion is unconstitutionally coercive of the States. In addition to Mr. Bradbury, Steven A. Engel (counsel of record), Michael H. Park and Elisa T. Wiygul were also on the briefs.
