Unraveled Obamacare, Religious Liberty, and Executive Power

Six years after its enactment, Obamacare remains one of the most controversial, divisive, and enduring political issues in America. In this much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare (2013), Josh Blackman argues that, to implement the law, President Obama has broken promises about cancelled insurance policies, exceeded the traditional bounds of executive power, and infringed on religious liberty. At the same time, conservative opponents have stopped at nothing to unravel Obamacare, including a three-week government shutdown, four Supreme Court cases, and fifty repeal votes. This legal thriller provides the definitive account of the battle to stop Obamacare from being 'woven into the fabric of America'. Unraveled is essential reading to understand the future of the Affordable Care Act in America's gridlocked government in 2016, and beyond.

Prologue; Part I. The Promise of Obamacare: 1. 'If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance'; 2. Federal and state exchanges; 3. Life and religious liberty; Part II. Conscience and Contraception: 4. The contraception mandate; 5. Election slowdown; 6. Faith in the courts; Part III. Shutdown: 7. Exchanges 'established by the state'; 8. Tea party summer; 9. 'Train wreck'; 10. Filibuster; Part IV. Obamacare Unravels: 11. Lights out; 12. Canceled; 13. Government by blog post; 14. Crashing into the deadline; Part V. Religious Liberty: 15. New year's resolution; 16. Substantial burden; 17. 'Glitch'; 18. Between two ferms; 19. Corporate prayer; 20. Notorious RBG; Part VI. Nuclear Fallout: 21. Circuit split; 22. Dueling petitions; 23. 'So sue me'; Part VII. Subsidizing Obamacare: 24. #GruberGate; 25. King v. Burwell; 26. Gridlock; 27. 'Unravel what's now been woven into the fabric of America'; 28. 'Improve health care markets, not destroy them'; Part VIII. The Nuns: 29. Make health care great again; 30. Short-handed court; 31. 'Hijacked'; 32. 'Accommodation'; Epilogue.

Josh Blackman is a constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law, Houston. He is the author of Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare (2013). Professor Blackman regularly provides public commentary on constitutional matters, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and other national publications.