◼ D.C. Circuit rules that Obamacare tax isn’t a “bill for raising revenue” - Pacific Legal Foundation
This morning, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against our challenge to Obamacare, holding that the individual mandate tax need not have originated in the House of Representatives because it does not qualify as a “bill for raising revenue” under the Constitution. In a relatively short opinion by Judge Judith Rogers, the court holds that the overall purpose of the individual mandate tax was to force people to buy insurance, not to raise revenue, and therefore the constitutional requirement that it originate in the House does not apply.
In our arguments before the court, we contended that this vague “overall purpose” kind of approach shouldn’t apply. No previous court decision has used it; although some language in the precedent, when read out of context, refers to the “purpose” of various laws, what the Supreme Court has actually said is that there is a category of taxes that aren’t really taxes, because they’re penalties—fines or other provisions meant to force you to comply with some other law. Those aren’t subject to the Origination Clause. But the individual mandate tax doesn’t fall into that category. Why not? Because the Supreme Court said so in NFIB v. Sebelius. It specifically held that the individual mandate tax is not a penalty—only a tax....
