The case came before a court whose conservative leanings were strengthened by Trump’s nominees — Kavanaugh and Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. As a law professor before she became a judge, Barrett criticized the court’s two previous decisions upholding the law. Barrett sounded skeptical that Congress could reduce the penalty to zero and still have it construed as a tax. Hawkins urged the court to declare the provision unconstitutional and to find that it cannot be separated from the overall law. Even without enforcement of the penalty under 2017 changes in tax law, he said, “the market will remain stable.”

Source: Washington Post November 10, 2020 13:17 UTC