SCOTUS's decision on The Health Care Law 6/28/12

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Bricker

Did not see this coming. Apparently it’s not constitutional as an exercise of Congress’ Commerce Clause powers, but it is as an exercise of Congress’ taxation powers.

I guess Justice Bricker would have concurred in the result.

As would Justice Bright. In fact…

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

[They don’t have to analyze it under the ICC, though. Regardless of how it was framed, the penalty underlying the individual mandate is either a tax or it isn’t. If it’s a tax, it falls under the taxing and spending power regardless of what constitutional provision Congress overtly relied on in enacting it.

From [URL=“http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/supreme_court_preview/briefs/11-398_petitioner.authcheckdam.pdf”]the Petitioners’ (Government’s) SCOTUS brief on the individual mandate (the “minimum coverage” provision)](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14924561&postcount=200):

In “passing on the constitutionality of a tax law,” a court is “concerned only with its practical operation, not its definition or the precise form of descriptive words which may be applied to it.” Nelson v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 312 U.S. 359, 363 (1941).