Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

Supplemental briefs in the matter of KENNEDY v. BRAIDWOOD MANAGEMENT arrived at the US Supreme Court Monday, May 5. The court had requested them subsequent to oral argument on the case, which is itself unusual.  KENNEDY is the latest in a line of cases challenging the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Specifically, this case involves the ACA's creation of the Preventive Services Task Force, a body that passes on which preventive medical services must be covered by compliant insurance plans.  Braidwood, a small Christian owned business in Texas, doesn't want to be required to pay so its employees can be protected from HIV infection. Braidwood says that the coverage mandates raise an issue under the appointments clause, Art. II, section 1, clause 2. This clause distinguishes between "officers of the United States" on the one hand and "inferior officers" on the other. Officers of the United States must be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the...

Yes, Big Pharma is a suitable target for resistance, even Resistance. A lot of people agree about this -- pretty near every adult American not on the payroll of Big Pharma and even many who are on those payrolls would agree with this. And so we have Robert F. Kennedy Jr ready to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Aside from his family name and connections, this is the one point of appeal about RFK Jr.: not that he once hid a dead bear in Central Park in an elaborate ruse, not that he is a licensed master falconer, not even that there is a dead critter in his head ... but that he is an enemy of Big Pharma. But we ought to try to be clear at the expense of that unlikely appeal. For many of us, the big problem that MAKES IT SO is not that Big Pharma invents imaginary ills in order to sell drugs that create real ills. No ... the big problem is that Big Pharma abuses IP law so that it gets to jack up the prices of drugs that are genuinely valuable. Not that its products a...