DOJ lays out health law defense in SCOTUS brief

Just as the Justice Department reiterated its main argument supporting the health law's individual mandate, briefs offering an opposing view were filed by the case's plaintiffs and by 36 Republican senators.  

The Washington Post: Administration To High Court: Congress Acted Within Rights On Health-Care Law
Congress was "well within" its constitutional powers when it decided that the way to resolve a crisis in health-care costs and coverage was to mandate that Americans obtain insurance or pay a fine, the Obama administration told the Supreme Court on Friday (Barnes, 1/6).

The Wall Street Journal: Government Lays Out Health-Law Defense
The department submitted a 63-page written brief that reiterated its main legal arguments in support of the health-care law's requirement that individuals carry health insurance or pay a penalty. Among its submissions, the Obama administration argued the insurance mandate is a valid way to address a national crisis in which the uninsured impose huge costs on the U.S. health-care system (Kendall and Maltby, 1/6).

Bloomberg: Obama Administration Lawyers Defend Health-Care Law At U.S. High Court
In the first of several rounds of briefs that will be filed before the justices hear arguments in late March, the government argued that Congress could enact the so-called individual mandate under its constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce. "Congress has wide latitude when deciding how best to achieve its constitutional objectives, and its decision to adopt a minimum-coverage provision was eminently reasonable," argued U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, the administration's top Supreme Court advocate (Stohr, 1/6).

Politico: States, Other Foes Tell SCOTUS To Strike ACA
The Supreme Court is being bombarded with legal arguments for the overturning of President Barack Obama's health reform law, as the law's opponents filed briefs Friday arguing that if the individual mandate is unconstitutional, the rest of the law must be struck down, too. The briefs came from the law's official challengers in court -; 26 states plus the National Federation of Independent Business. But 36 Republican senators, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, filed their own amicus brief arguing the same point (Nather, 1/6).

Roll Call: Republican Senators Urge SCOTUS To Nullify Health Care Law
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and 35 other Senate Republicans today weighed in on the latest fight over President Barack Obama's two-year-old health care reform law, filing a friend of the court brief urging the Supreme Court find it unconstitutional. ... The Republicans' brief argues that the entire law -; formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -; must fall if the court rules that the individual mandate is unconstitutional (Sanchez, 1/6).

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: The Individual Mandate And Eating Your Broccoli
One of the major arguments against the individual health insurance mandate in the federal health overhaul is this: If Congress can force most Americans to buy health insurance, can't it also require people to buy broccoli?" (Galewitz, 1/6). 

Kaiser Health News details additional coverage and provides copies of the DOJ brief and the plaintiffs' brief.