# NFIB v. Sebelius **Status: stub — expand.** **Decided June 28, 2012 · Roberts, C.J.** Three holdings on the Affordable Care Act, two of them federalism landmarks. **Commerce Clause:** five justices held the individual mandate could not be sustained under the [[Commerce Clause]], because that power reaches the regulation of existing commercial activity and does not extend to **compelling** individuals to enter a market. **Taxing power:** the mandate survived 5–4 anyway, read as a tax on going without insurance rather than a legal command. **Spending Clause:** seven justices held the Medicaid expansion unconstitutionally coercive, the first time the Court ever enforced [[South Dakota v. Dole]]'s coercion limit. Threatening a state's **entire existing** Medicaid grant to compel acceptance of a new program was "a gun to the head" — "economic dragooning that leaves the States with no real option." The remedy was to make expansion optional, which is why some states have never expanded. ## See also - [[Spending Clause]] · [[South Dakota v. Dole]] · [[Federalism Powers Crosswalk]]