The United States Supreme Court has ruled on the Affordable Care Act and ruled that the individual mandate can be upheld as a valid exercise of the taxing power of the US Constitution. The decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts held that the law was not a valid exercise of the Commerce Clause but was a valid exercise of the Taxing Power.
Surprisingly this was a 5-4 ruling with Roberts in the majority and swing vote Kennedy in the minority. I don’t think many court watchers predicted this kind of outcome.
The key provision I’ve found so far holds that
“Our precedent demonstrates that Congress had the power to impose the exaction in Section 5000A under the taxing power, and that Section 5000A need not be read to do more than impose a tax. This is sufficient to sustain it”