The Constitution, ObamaCare, and the Individual Mandate

Currently the Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed by Congress in 2010, and universally known by friend and foe alike as ObamaCare. Much has been written about the individual mandate provision.  The best short discussion of the topic from the standpoint of the U. S. Constitution that I have seen comes from Richard Leffler, a historian at the University of Wisconsin. Rich is one of the finest scholars of the U. S. Constitution you will ever find. I have known him for close to 40 years now and his work, with John Kaminski and others, on the multivolume Documentary History of the Ratification of the U.S. Constitution ranks among the finest contributions ever made to American constitutional history.  Rich has written a thoughtful and cogent essay for the Huffington Post on the Constitutionality of the Individual Mandate and I highly recommend it.  -Ray Smock