In order for a contract to be legally binding, it must be a voluntary agreement between the entities entering into that contract. If one of the entities is coerced into signing, the contract in question violates the principle of mutual assent and is not legally enforceable. This principle is supported by centuries of legal precedent.
Because ObamaCare’s insurance mandate coerces individuals into signing contracts with private corporations (i.e. insurance companies), it obviously makes a mockery of the mutual assent principle. Thus, the Institute for Justice has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court raising this issue.
The only way the individual mandate can be “legitimate” is if coecion by the federal government is somehow not covered by this general principle. And that, as constitutional law professor Elizabeth Price Foley (who co-authored the amicus brief) explains in the following video, is scary territory:
[ht Ed Morrissey]
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