The attorney general of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli, has his own suit against ObamaCare pending. He explains the dispute before the Supremes, centered on the Commerce Clause of the constitution. There would be no challenge to the health care law, says Cuccinelli, if it had been funded with a tax instead of a mandate to purchase.

For them (the court) to uphold the mandate, they have to take the outer reach of the Commerce Clause and move it way, way out from where it stands now.