In a 5-4 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is constitutional. The Court upheld the most controversial portion of the law — the requirement that as of 2014 all Americans must have health insurance or pay a penalty — as a valid exercise of Congress’s tax powers. The penalty, the majority held, is in fact a tax on those who do not have health insurance, as it is enforced through the tax code and assessed on Federal tax returns. In rendering this judgment, the Court…

As the Washington political class waits for the U.S. Supreme Court to hand down decisions in such hotly contested cases as the challenge to the Affordable Care Act and the constitutionality of Arizona’s immigration law, there is evidence that the public at large is losing confidence in the Court as an impartial arbiter of justice. In a New York Times/CBS poll released last week, only 44 percent of Americans approved of the job the Court is doing — down from a highs in the mid-60s during the late 1980s. This rating is even lower than the results in a Pew…

In a decision that seems certain to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that a key provision of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. In a 3-to-0 decision, the appeals court struck down a portion of the Act that prevents individuals in same-sex marriages recognized by States from receiving Federal benefits conferred on married couples, such as being able to receive spousal Social Security benefits and file taxes jointly. The circuit court held that such a prohibition violated principles of Federalism and unlawfully targeted minority interests…