Historic Supreme Courts--Obamacare (thread 8), Episode 4: Reconstruction Court vs. Obamacare: When Liberty Meant Being Left Alone

Imagine sitting down with an old friend who’s a constitutional hardliner from the Reconstruction era — they’d think Obamacare isn’t a safety net, it’s an unconstitutional shove. This episode walks you through how the Morrison-Wadey Court, steeped in the 13th–15th Amendments yet determined to limit federal reach, would recoil at mandates, view health care as a state issue, and prioritize freedom from government over freedom to live securely.

We unpack key cases like Slaughterhouse, E.C. Knight, and the Civil Rights Cases to show how the Court’s commitment to freedom of contract and negative liberty would make them staunch opponents of modern health-care reform — and why that stance looks morally and constitutionally flawed today.