John Roberts in Reuters

On Health Care: Individual mandate is constitutional even with $0 tax

The Court's decision in California v. Texas concludes that the plaintiffs trying to undo ObamaCare had no business being in court. The case was brought by Texas officials who object to ObamaCare, centered on the law's individual mandate [which] required most Americans to either obtain health insurance or pay higher taxes. In 2017, Congress amended ObamaCare to zero out this tax. The Texas plaintiffs claimed that this zeroed-out tax is unconstitutional and also claimed that the entire law must be declared invalid if the zero dollar tax is stuck down.

In a 7-2 ruling, the Court ruled that no one is allowed to bring suit to challenge a provision of law that does nothing: "The IRS can no longer seek a penalty; there is no possible Government action that is causally connected to the plaintiffs' injury."

SCOTUS outcome:Authored by Breyer; joined by Roberts; Thomas; Sotomayor; Kagan; Kavanaugh; and Barrett. Thomas also wrote a concurring opinion. Alito and Gorsuch dissented.

Source: Reuters on 2021 SCOTUS ruling: "California v. Texas" Jun 17, 2021

The above quotations are from Media coverage of political races in Reuters News Service. Click here for other excerpts from Media coverage of political races in Reuters News Service. Click here for other excerpts by John Roberts. Click here for a profile of John Roberts.
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