In Defense of the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid Expansion

The only part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) struck down in NFIB v. Sebelius was a provision expanding Medicaid. ¹ We will argue that this was a mistake; the provision should not have been struck down. We will do this by identifying a test that Chief Justice Roberts used to justify his view that this provision was unconstitutional. We will defend that test against some objections raised by Justice Ginsburg. We will then go on to argue that, properly applied, that test establishes the constitutionality of the Medicaid provision.