Lake Forest College commemorates Constitution Day with debate

Can the federal government constitutionally require citizens to purchase health insurance?  On Thursday, September 15, at 7:30pm in the Lily Reid Holt Memorial Chapel on Middle Campus, legal scholars Martin H. Redish and Stephen B. Presser will debate this important constitutional question in a provocative discussion at Lake Forest College. The event is free of charge and open to the public. 

The mandate requiring Americans to purchase health insurance is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in March 2010.  In the intervening months, several different federal courts have issued conflicting rulings on the constitutionality of this mandate, and the Supreme Court will very likely consider the issue in the coming year.  

Professor Redish, the Louis and Harriet Ancel Professor of Law and Public Policy at Northwestern University, will argue in favor of the madate’s constitutionality. Professor Stephen B. Presser, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History at Northwestern, will argue that the mandate is unconstitutional.  Their remarks will be followed by an open question and answer session.  

This 2011 Constitution Day event is sponsored by Lake Forest College and the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History, as part of the Center’s Constitution Day Initiative.