From a Wall Street Journal breaking news alert:
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said the U.S. government has a “very heavy burden of justification” to show where the Constitution authorizes the Congress to change the relation of individuals to the government. His comments came as the high court tackled the central issue in the challenge to the Obama administration’s health-care law — whether Congress could require individuals to carry health insurance or pay a penalty.
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, in defending the law, argued that Congress was regulating the health-care market in which people were already participating, rather than breaking new ground by forcing them to buy a product. Justice Kennedy asked what limits, if any, there would be to government powers under his argument. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer weighed in repeatedly to further Verrilli’s argument, and to counter skeptical remarks made by Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito.
