The New Republic published the article The Worst Case: How health care reform really could get repealed—and why the repercussions would go well beyond health care.

This describes the prior Supreme Court decision that forms the philosophy underpinning the efforts to repeal.

A few years later, in Lochner v. New York, a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court held that New York state had indeed overreached—that government had no authority to exercise such “police power” over what was, after all, private economic activity. In the three decades that followed, the Lochner Court, as it became known, would continue to strike down key pieces of Progressive era legislation and, eventually, the New Deal. In some cases, including Lochner, the Court cited a supposedly sacrosanct right to private economic decision-making, free from interference by the states or the federal government. In others, the Court relied on a narrow interpretation of Washington’s authority to regulate interstate commerce, effectively limiting it to the management of trade that literally crossed state lines.

I won’t spoil your read by quoting the rest of the story.