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  • Is Broccoli Overexposed?


    Broccoli will never be the same. The vegetable reached meme status after March arguments in the health-care case in which Justice Antonin Scalia said to Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli,  “Everybody has to buy food sooner or later, so you define the market as food, therefore, everybody is in the market; therefore, you can make people buy broccoli.”

    After a dozen mentions in Thursday’s health-care decision, the green vegetable is on the cusp of cliche.

    Here goes, all 12 mentions.

    Nos. 1-3, from Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.’s opinion:

    The Government argues that the individual mandatecan be sustained as a sort of exception to this rule, because health insurance is a unique product. According to the Government, upholding the individual mandate would not justify mandatory purchases of items such as cars or broccoli because, as the Government puts it, “[h]ealth insurance is not purchased for its own sake like a car or broccoli; it is a means of financing health-care consumption and covering universal risks.” Reply Brief for United States 19. But cars and broccoli are no more purchased for their “own sake” than health insurance. They arepurchased to cover the need for transportation and food. . .

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