Praise for a Supreme Court Performance

The performance this week of Obama solicitor general Donald Verrilli before the Supreme Court defending the health care law has been widely panned. But he has at least one prominent  backer: Walter Dellinger, solicitor general in the Clinton administration. He spoke highly of Verrilli's arguments today.

"Verrilli did an excellent job making all the essential points as an advocate, returning to central themes and statutory principles to sustain the law," Dellinger said at a panel discussion sponsored by the liberal-leaning American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

Dellinger said the case's outcome is impossible to determine, but said he saw signs that justices Anthony Kennedy and John Roberts might uphold the law. He also called some of the conservative justices' questions on the social safety net "callous."

Correction: The original version of this item misspelled the first name of Donald Verrilli. 

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