Obamacare Mostly Constitutional, Says Divided Supreme Court

The much anticipated decision is in.  A divided court upheld the Affordable Care Act, dubbed "Obamacare."
The Supreme Court held that under the Act, Congress did not intend the penalty assessed if individuals did not obtain health insurance to be a tax, but that Congress's intentions were not controlling on the Court as to whether the penalty was actually a tax.  Thus, by ruling that the penalty was not intended to be a tax, the Court held that the Anti-Injunction Act is not implicated.  What this means, is that the Court did not dismiss this case and tell appellants to wait until they have actually paid the penalty before coming back to the Supreme Court and asking for a refund. Rather than having to wait until 2014 to decide the constitutionality of the individual mandate/penalty, the Court chose to dispense with the challenge to the ACA now.
The Court next held that Congress could not impose the individual mandate under the Commerce Clause.  But, the Court held, the Act can be upheld as arising under Congress's taxing authority.  In rejecting the Commerce Clause as authority for the individual mandate, the Court explained that the ACA did not regulate commerce so much as it required individuals to engage in it. So a mandate to purchase broccolli is not the next move for Congress.  This is the slippery slope where the Supreme Court drew its line.  The individual mandate to purchase health insurance is nevertheless constitutional.  In upholding the mandate, the Court explained that the tax was not so large that there is no choice but to purchase health insurance, and that not purchasing insurance has no legal consequences beyond payment of the tax.
The Court struck down the penatly assessed to States that choose not to participate in the expansion of Medicaide as being an unconstiutional use of Congress's spending power.  This the Court ruled however, does not invalidate the remaining provisions of the ACA.

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Obama Care Oral Arguments Underway

On Monday, March 26, 2012, oral arguments in front of the United States Supreme Court got underway to hear the legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010.


The Supreme Court scheduled an unprecedented six hours over three days for oral argument this week after granting certiorari. At issue is the Act's individual mandate to purchase health insurance or pay a tax penalty. two federal appellate courts have upheld the mandate, one declared it unconstitutional and one appellate court declined to decide the issue under the Anti-Injunciton Act, ruling the issue could not be decided until tax payers are actually harmed by having to pay the tax/penalty in 2015.


Monday's oral argument focused mainly on whether the Anti-Injunction Act prohibited the present challenge, and whether the requirement that a tax payer who fails to purchase health insurance is assessed a tax or a penalty, which would dictate whether the AIA applies. There was discussion between the Justices and amicus curiae court appointed counsel Robert A. Long whether the Anti-Injunction Act is jurisdictional, thus robbing the courts of the ability to hear the issue, or directed at the Solicitor General, thus prohibiting the litigants from filing suit.


Nomenclature was an issue regarding whether the assessment is actually a tax or a penalty. Right out of the box, Justice Alito quipped to the Solicitor General for the Department of Justice Donald B. Verrilli, "General Verrilli, today you are arging that the penalty is not a tax. Tomorrow You are going to be back and you will be arguing that the penalty is a tax." When Chief Justice Roberts referred to the assessment as a penalty, attorney for challengers to the Act, Gregory G. Katsas, corrected "taxes, Mr. Chief Justice."


The attorneys were peppered with questions mainly from Ginsberg, Scalia, Sotomayor, Breyer, Roberts and Kegan, with a few questions from Alito and Kennedy. Thomas remained characteristically silent during argument.


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