Case:
The blockbuster decision by the Court to uphold the controversial Individual Mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act relied on an argument that, until today, most of the media had entirely overlooked.
During the last 10 minutes of Solicitor General Donald Verrilli’s argument in March on the Individual Mandate, the government argued that the provision was a valid exercise of Congressional power under the Taxing Clause. The justices, including the author of today’s opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts, focused on the key concern with the argument: Why did Congress not simply call the penalty a tax?