UK Law Professor's Work Cited in Historic Case

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 29, 2012) – University of Kentucky Law Professor Nicole Huberfeld's recent article in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law was cited Thursday by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she weighed in for the majority opinion on the court's historic decision regarding the national health care law known as the Affordable Care Act.

In a 5-4 ruling, the Court decided that Congress did not overstep its authority in passing the law. The legislation thus remains intact.

Professor Huberfeld is the Gallion and Baker Professor of Law in the UK College of Law and teaches Constitutional Law I, Healthcare Organizations and Finance, Bioethical Issues in the Law, and Healthcare Law and Policy Seminar. She is also a bioethics associate in the UK College of Medicine. Professor Huberfeld’s scholarship focuses on the cross-section of constitutional law and federal health care programs with a particular interest in federalism and Spending Clause jurisprudence.

Huberfeld's journal article focused on Medicaid provisions in the Affordable Care Act.

Justice Ginsburg explained her reasons for upholding the law, saying that the requirement for all Americans to have insurance would “even out” as younger people age and eventually need health care.

“Health care is not like a vegetable or other items one is at liberty to buy or not to buy,” Ginsburg said.

On the Medicaid provision, Ginsburg argued that under the Affordable Care Act the program expands in a way that poor people now would have access. Congress, she said, “did not otherwise change the operation of the program.”

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MEDIA CONTACTS: Carl Nathe, (859) 257-3200; carl.nathe@uky.edu;

Amanda DeBord; (859) 257-7938; Amanda.Debord@uky.edu.