Public Affairs Quarterly is seeking abstracts for a special issue which will cover the various issues surrounding the upcoming Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); the decision is expected later this month. We are seeking papers that are philosophical in nature, but, in keeping with the purpose of the journal, we are primarily interested in papers that engage in a meaningful way with the Court’s decision. The aim of the special issue is to move beyond the generic debate over universal health care and to engage critically with the various legal and normative issues at stake in the Affordable Care Act, specifically, the potential legal fallout from the decision, and legislative/political paths forward.
The Court has granted review of the following issues with respect to the ACA:
• Is it appropriate to decide the case before any individual has been forced to pay the penalty which is at issue; i.e. does the Anti-Injunction Act apply?
• Can the expansion in Medicaid proposed by the ACA be justified?
• Can the individual mandate be constitutionally justified?
• If the individual mandate is deemed unconstitutional, what ramifications ought this to have for the rest of the provisions in the ACA; i.e. is the individual mandate severable?
We hope that authors will engage meaningfully with one or more of these issues as well as the normative and legal consequences that follow.
Abstracts should be between 500 and 750 words in length and should be submitted within one month of the decision. If selected, authors will then have an additional six months to submit final manuscripts for the issue. The special issue will be edited by Nathan Stout (Tulane University) with oversight from PAQ’s Editor-in-Chief, Fritz Allhoff (Western Michigan University). We welcome submissions not just from philosophers, but also from our colleagues in the legal and medical communities.
Abstracts should be sent in .doc or .docx format to Nathan Stout at: paqjournal@gmail.com. All manuscripts are to be submitted in accordance with the style guidelines of the journal which may be found here.