"Sympathetic clients" in the Obamacare cases

March 23, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Prof. Kevin Walsh thinks opponents of the Individual Mandate should have found a sympathetic client. How about PLF client Matt Sissel?

A decorated Iraq War veteran (a Medic, incidentally) as well as an entrepreneur and a talented artist, Matt started a business to sell portraits and other artwork. He doesn’t buy health insurance because it doesn’t make financial sense for him to do so, given his other financial commitments, his health, and so forth. But thanks to the Mandate, he’s forced to buy insurance he doesn’t need with money that would be better spent growing his business, in order to subsidize insurance companies, who are, in turn, forced to provide insurance to people who are already sick. Matt is only one of the countless hardworking, responsible Americans whose rights are violated by the Individual Mandate and who are standing up for principle against this unconstitutional expansion of federal power. I don’t know what could be more sympathetic than that. It’s a shame that constitutional principle isn’t enough, but if you want to see how those principles affect real human beings, check out Matt’s story.