Have you “over-absorbed” your Posner?

November 8th, 2011

If so, you are like most Americans. A great line from Kavanaugh’s dissent in the individual mandate case:

According to plaintiffs, the United States does not necessarily consist of 310 million people who have over-absorbed their Posner and equate (i) a traditional regulatory tax that incentivizes or disincentivizes certain behavior and (ii) a legal mandate or prohibition accompanied by a tax penalty of the same amount. After all, plaintiffs say, common sense tells us that many citizens want to be lawabiding (and known as law-abiding), and that their desire to be law-abiding affects their behavior.

Well, I absorb my Posner. Do you?