Judge Napolitano on Washington's Vast New Power
The reasoning underlying the 5 to 4 majority opinion is the Supreme Court's unprecedented pronouncement that Congress' power to tax is unlimited. The majority, writes Judge Andrew Napolitano, held that the extraction of thousands of dollars per year by the IRS from individuals who do not have health insurance is not a fine, not a punishment, not a payment for government-provided health insurance, not a shared responsibility—all of which the statute says it is—but rather is an inducement in the form of a tax.