Precedents cited in health care battle

— -- Both sides in the Supreme Court battle over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act rely on legal precedents to make their case that the requirement to buy insurance is or is not legal under the Constitution's Commerce Clause. Here are the four cases most frequently cited:

Wickard v. Filburn, 1942: The federal government limited wheat production during the Depression to drive up prices. Farmer Roscoe Filburn grew more than his legal allotment, claiming it was for personal use. The government ordered him to destroy the excess crops and pay a fine. The Supreme Court ruled that the government had that authority under the Commerce Clause, because wheat was traded nationally.

United States v. Lopez, 1995: Alfonso Lopez Jr. carried an unloaded gun into his Texas high school and was charged with violating a federal law regulating guns in or near schools. The government argued that the potential for violence and disturbance of education carried economic impacts. But the Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional because it did not connect gun possession to interstate commerce. The law was later rewritten.

United States v. Morrison, 2000:Virginia Tech football player Antonio Morrison was not charged with a crime for having sexual contact with a freshman student against her will. She filed suit for a civil remedy under the federal Violence Against Women Act. The Supreme Court invalidated that part of the law, citing the Lopez decision in ruling that gender-based violence had no direct effect on economic activity or interstate commerce.

Gonzales v. Raich, 2005: Federal drug enforcement agents had destroyed the home-grown marijuana supply used by Angel Raich to alleviate pain and, her lawyer argued, save her life. Though California allowed the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, federal law did not. The Supreme Court upheld the government's raid under the Commerce Clause, ruling that the use of medicinal marijuana affects the interstate market.