NRD Editor’s Note: We will be updating this post throughout the day with new information–so stay tuned!
Arguments in day 2 of the ObamaCare SCOTUS case have come to an end. Listen to today’s arguments by clicking here (you can listen to yesterday’s arguments by clicking here).
Today’s arguments centered around whether the mandate portion of ObamaCare passed the constitutional smell test.
From a report from the Wall Street Journal:
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.
More on ObamaCare:
- ObamaCare & SCOTUS: Day 1
- Supreme Court oral arguments begin on ObamaCare
- Two years of Obamacare and ‘We’re still trying to find out what’s in it.’
- ObamaCare turning 2, costs still rising as point of no return nears
- Let them eat health care!
- Deconstructing ObamaCare
- ObamaCare 10-year costs jumps to $1.75 trillion
