Supreme Court qui tam case mooted by PPACA

On March 30, 2010, the Supreme Court decided Graham County Soil and Water Conservation Dist. v. U.S. ex rel. Wilson, — S.Ct. —-, 2010 WL 1189557 (2010), holding that the public disclosure provisions of the qui tam section of the federal civil false claims act, 29 U.S.C. 3730(e)(4) barred qui tam relators from bringing an [...]

How Does the Health Reform Legislation Affect Self-Insured Plans?

Analysis of the application of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to self-insured plans must begin with section 1562 of the Act, which adds section 715 to ERISA and section 9815 to the Internal Revenue Code. These provisions state that all of the provisions of Part A of Title XXVII of the Public Health [...]

The Executive Order on Abortion

Article II of the Constitution states that “the executive Power shall be vested in the President of the United States of America.” It further states that the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Presidents since Washington have often issued executive orders including for example the Emancipation Proclamation, President Truman’s order desegregating [...]

Deem and Pass

The latest constitutional dust-up over health care reform concerns whether the dDeem-and-pass rule proposed by Congresswoman Slaughter for passing the Senate bill though the House is constitutional. The problem, for anyone who has not been following the health care reform battle minute by minute, is that a lot of House members hate the Senate bill [...]

Abortion in the Senate Bill

In a document titled What’s Wrong with the Senate Health Care Bill on Abortion: A Response to Professor Jost, dated March 12, 2010, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops respond to an earlier memorandum that I circulated demonstrating that the House and Senate bill are essentially equivalent on pro-life issues. On January 20, 2010, [...]