国际英语新闻:US Supreme Court Questions Obama Health Care Law

President Barack Obama’s signature health care law appeared to be in legal jeopardy Tuesday, following oral arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States over whether the law is constitutional. The case now before the high court represents a major legal and political showdown over health care reform that the president signed into law two years ago despite strong objections from opposition Republicans.

In the second of three days of oral arguments before the Supreme Court, the nine justices considered a key part of the health care law known as the individual mandate.

The mandate requires all Americans to buy health insurance, beginning in 2014 or face a penalty. Supporters say the mandate is necessary to spread the costs of covering millions of previously uninsured citizens. Opponents regard the mandate an unconstitutional overreach by the federal government.

During Tuesday’s oral arguments, conservative-leaning justices on the high court seemed skeptical that the individual mandate should be allowed under the U.S. Constitution.

Justice Antonin Scalia is one of the high court’s leading conservative thinkers.

“The federal government is not supposed to be a government that has all powers, that it is supposed to be a government of limited powers and that is what all this questioning is about," he said. "What is left? If the government can do this, what else can it not do?”

Scalia is one of four justices on the nine-member court who consistently take conservative positions.

Four other justices, all appointed by Democratic presidents, have a more liberal voting record. They generally were more open to the idea that the health care law is constitutional.

Among them is Justice Stephen Breyer.

“It shows there is a national problem and it shows there is a national problem that involves money, cost and insurance,” said Breyer.

The key vote in many Supreme Court cases is often cast by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who often is referred to as the "swing justice" by legal experts who follow the Supreme Court.

Kennedy also seemed skeptical about the power of Congress to compel everyone to buy health insurance.

“When you are changing the relation of the individual to the government in this what we can stipulate is, I think, a unique way, do you not have a heavy burden of justification to show authorization under the Constitution?” he said.