Toward the end of his much-criticized oral argument over the health care individual mandate on March 27, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. made a spirited pitch for a little-noticed argument in favor of the law. He said the insurance requirement could be justified under the enumerated power of Congress to “lay and collect taxes.”
Even though Congress and the Obama administration shied away from using the “tax” label to describe the penalty for not buying health insurance, Verrilli insisted that “it was clear they [Congress] were exercising the tax power.”
