James Blumstein, M.A., L.L.B.
James F. Blumstein, MA, LLB
University Professor of Constitutional Law and Health Law & Policy
Director of the Vanderbilt Health Policy Center
RWJF Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College National Advisory Board Member
“Issues in Implementing the Affordable Care Act”
Professor James "Jim" Blumstein ranks among the nation's most prominent scholars of
health law, law and medicine, and voting rights. He is currently one of 13 University
Professors at Vanderbilt; he was the first awarded that title in the law school and
the first to receive a second tenured appointment in Vanderbilt Medical School.
Blumstein wrote an amicus brief that helped shape the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling
on the Affordable Care Act, and it was cited by Chief Justice Roberts in the Court's
decision stating that the ACA's Medicaid mandate could not be enforced. On September
12, 2012, Blumstein testified before the House Ways and Means Committee's Health Subcommittee
in Washington, D.C. as part of a panel of experts and lawmakers regarding the implementation
of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The director of Vanderbilt's Health Policy Center,
Professor Blumstein has served as the principal investigator on numerous grants concerning
managed care, hospital management and medical malpractice. His peers recognized his
leadership in health law and policy by electing Professor Blumstein to the National
Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, and he was awarded the Earl Sutherland
Prize, which is Vanderbilt's preeminent university-wide recognition for lifetime scholarly
contributions. Professor Blumstein has been a Scholars-in-Residence Visiting Professor
for the RWJF Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College.
He has served as Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen's counsel on TennCare reform and
has participated actively in a number of Supreme Court cases, arguing three. A dedicated
teacher, Professor Blumstein has received the law school's student-sponsored Hartman
Teaching Award. He joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 1970. Blumstein is the author
of Health Care Law and Policy (2nd edition, Foundation Press, 1998 & 2007 supp.).