Affordable Care Act

Is The Obama Admin Trying To Box In Scalia On The Health Care Mandate?

Sahil Kapur | January 11, 2012, 5:22AM

Justice Antonin Scalia

On first blush, it seems like a no-brainer that Antonin Scalia will vote to overturn the health care reform law's requirement that Americans buy insurance: the Reagan-appointed justice is a staunch conservative who's beloved by Republicans; for what possible reason could he deliver such a devastating blow to his own side and boost President Obama?

The answer: judicial precedent. His own. And the Obama administration has noticed.

In its brief filed with the Supreme Court Friday, the Justice Department cited no fewer than 10 times the 2005 Gonzalez v. Raich case, in which Scalia (and Justice Anthony Kennedy) broke with the court's conservative wing to hand down what scholars viewed as one of the broadest declarations of federal power under the Commerce Clause: a 6-3 ruling decreeing that Congress may ban a medical-marijuana patient from growing cannabis for personal use in California where it's legal.

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Health Care

DOJ Files Brief Defending Key Health Care Law Provision To SCOTUS

Brian Beutler | January 6, 2012, 3:42PM

President Barack Obama speaks on the economy in Shaker Heights, OH on January 4, 2012.

Here's the Justice Department's brief defending the new health care law's individual Supreme Court.

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