The United States attorney general says he'll comply with a federal judge's request to type three single-spaced pages recognizing the authority of the federal courts to strike down laws passed by Congress.

Obama said at a press conference on Monday that the Supreme Court declaring the health care law unconstitutional "would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress."

Attorney General Eric Holder defended Obama's comments today, calling them "appropriate" when he was asked by reporters if he'll respond to the request for a written explanation by Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee on the appeals court.

"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," Obama said.

Holder said today that "what the president said a couple days ago was appropriate."

"The courts are also fairly deferential when it comes to overturning statutes that the duly elected representatives of the people in Congress pass," he told reporters in Chicago.

Holder repeated that the administration thinks the Supreme Court will uphold the health care law as constitutional.