[Yardstick]

The ruling is so incoherent that I can’t tell what exactly is establishes. I don’t see how it unmoors Congress’s taxation power from the requirement to be necessary and proper, even though it apparently did so in this particular case. How often does it happen that Congress passes a law involving a penalty that is then transformed into a tax by the Supreme Court? I think future laws involving taxes that don’t have this kind of magical birth will be subject to the necessary and proper requirement just like such laws always have.

[Cyber Liberty]

How often does it happen that Congress passes a law involving a penalty that is then transformed into a tax by the Supreme Court?

Having the IRS run the collections department was my first clue this is a tax, no matter what the Dems choose to call it.