I am a lawyer, a libertarian and a liberal -- not necessarily in that order. I know, a libertarian lawyer is an oxymoron: like "jumbo shrimp" or apropos "consistent conservative." All three parts of me have spent the week confused over the health care debate. Not that the Supreme Court is willing to jettison decades of commerce clause precedent: four were appointed as precedent killing cruise missles. The problem, of course, is that Supreme Court Justices are intellectuals and lawyers before they are Republicans, making them more like Scud missles.
My confusion was the lack of imagination in analyzing the mandate. Let's face it liberals, including Candiidate Obama, oppose a Congressional requirement to buy insurance from corporations. However, a solution to the mandate problem exists -- one I have not heard offered elsewhere -- that satisfies ALL of me. Join me below the fold to see how the Court can kill the mandate without changing the Affordable Care Act.