As the Supreme Court gears up to hear oral arguments in the Affordable Care Act cases next week, the Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution tested the central issue of the Act at its Sixth Annual Moot Court Program on March 20.  During the simulated court proceedings, a panel of distinguished law professors, noted legal thinkers, and current and former federal judges — including four Bush (41 and 43) appointees and CAC Board member and former DC Circuit Judge Patricia Wald  — heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of the minimum coverage provision in the ACA and voted 8-1 that the ACA’s mandate that Americans obtain insurance coverage or face a tax penalty is within Congress’s constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.   

You can watch the webcast of this terrific moot court program below:

CAC will attend the actual oral arguments at the Supreme Court next week, so be sure to read CAC’s brief, filed on behalf of more than 500 state legislators from all 50 states in support of the constitutionality of the minimum coverage provision here, and stay tuned to Text & History as developments in these critical cases unfold.