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Supreme Court rules for government in Obamacare exchanges case

June 25, 2015 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

This morning the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the Obama Administration in the latest Obamacare lawsuit, King v. Burwell. PLF was not involved in the case. The question was whether the long, intricate, poorly-written statute allows the federal government to make certain subsidies available to people who obtain insurance through a federal "ex ...

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Supreme Court won’t hear case challenging Obamacare’s “Platonic Guardians”

March 30, 2015 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

This morning, the Supreme Court declined to review the case challenging the constitutionality of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB. This is the group of unelected bureaucrats given authority to set Medicare reimbursement rates, whose "recommendations" automatically become law without any involvement by Congress, the President, or the ...

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L.A. Times' Michael Hiltzik says Supreme Court should end IPAB

January 12, 2015 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

L.A. Times columnist Michael Hiltzik is an outspoken supporter of Obamacare. But in his Jan. 9 column, he agrees with PLF and our allies at the Goldwater Institute that the Independent Payment Advisory Board (the group of unaccountable "Platonic Guardians" that Obamacare puts in charge of the Medicare program) is just beyond the bounds of the Const ...

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PLF joins forces with members of Congress to fight Obamacare

December 04, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

This morning, we joined forces with over two dozen members of Congress to file a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case challenging the constitutionality of the Independent Payment Advisory Board provision of Obamacare. IPAB is the group of "Platonic Guardians" that are empowered to regulate Medicare spending--a board of unelected, u ...

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"Tim the Lawyer" talks with A&G about PLF's victories for property rights & constitutional liberty

November 18, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

I joined our friends on the Armstrong & Getty Show this morning to talk about PLF's recent victories in the Utah prairie dog case and the SDS Family Trust case against the Coastal Commission, as well as our ongoing challenges to Obamacare. If you missed it, you can listen to the podcast here. ...

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Congressional leaders and more than a dozen states support PLF’s Obamacare case

October 15, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

A coalition of congressional leaders and states have filed friend of the court briefs in support of our case challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare under the Constitution's Origination Clause. In July, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected our lawsuit, holding that the Individual Mandate may be a tax, but it isn' ...

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Ninth Circuit won't rule on the constitutionality of Obamacare's "Platonic Guardians"

August 07, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this morning threw out the constitutional challenge to Obamacare's "Independent Payment Advisory Board"--the group of "Platonic Guardians" charged with writing laws relating to Medicare--on the grounds that case was brought too early. The Board's powers are invoked based on a certain economic formula, but because ...

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Yes, Obamacare is a “bill for raising revenue.” (Lots and lots of revenue.)

July 30, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

The D.C. Circuit ruled yesterday that the ACA is a tax, but not a "bill for raising revenue," and therefore is exempt from the Origination Clause, which says all "bills for raising revenue" must begin in the House of Representatives instead of the Senate. The court said that the "main object or aim" of the tax isn't to raise revenue, but to force p ...

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D.C. Circuit rules that Obamacare tax isn’t a “bill for raising revenue”

July 29, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

This morning, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against our challenge to Obamacare, holding that the individual mandate tax need not have originated in the House of Representatives because it does not qualify as a "bill for raising revenue" under the Constitution. In a relatively short opinion by Judge Judith Rogers, the court holds that the ...