If the government can order health care coverage, can it also order people to buy broccoli, a federal judge in Florida asked during oral arguments in a case challenging Obamacare.
Politico reports that Judge Roger Vinson asked if Congress could “mandate everybody has to buy a certain amount of broccoli.”
According to Politico, Ian Gershengor, the deputy assistant attorney general tasked with defending the law, replied, “It’s not shoes. It’s not broccoli. Health insurance is a product that is a financial mechanism.”
The comments were made Thursday in the case brought by 20 states challenging the constitutionality of the requirement that Americans buy health coverage. The case is being heard in federal court in Pensacola, Fla. Politico termed the Florida case the “most high-profile and politically charged” of the dozens of challenges working their way through the courts.
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