Obama warns against 'judicial activism' on health care law

WASHINGTON -- President Obama cautioned the Supreme Court against overturning his landmark health care law Monday, a move he said would be "unprecedented" and "extraordinary."

In his first comments on the court's historic oral arguments last week, Obama said a decision to reverse the actions of Congress would be "judicial activism," which conservatives usually oppose.

"I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress," the president said.

"And I'd just remind conservative commentators that for years what we've heard is the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good example. And I'm pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step."

Obama's comments came during a news conference at the White House with Mexican President Felipe Calderón and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper after a summit of the three North American leaders.

Obama had been in South Korea during the court's three-day consideration of the law, which was narrowly passed in 2010 by a majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate over Republicans' objections.

Obama predicted the justices would uphold the law, despite strong reservations voiced by four conservative justices about its requirement that most Americans buy insurance or pay a penalty. A fifth justice, Clarence Thomas, is widely expected to vote against the "individual mandate."

Conservatives quickly shot back at Obama's comments. "It must be nice living in a fantasy world where every law you like is constitutional and every Supreme Court decision you don't is 'activist,' " said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.