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People gather outside the Supreme Court on June 28, the morning the health care ruling was announced. Lawyers say they're still teasing out the consequences for other key areas of the law including civil rights.

People gather outside the Supreme Court on June 28, the morning the health care ruling was announced. Lawyers say they're still teasing out the consequences for other key areas of the law including civil rights.

There's been lots of talk about how the Supreme Court's landmark decision to uphold the health care law could affect the federal Medicaid program and President Obama's political standing. But days after the historic ruling, lawyers say they're still teasing out the consequences for other key areas of the law including civil rights.

At first blush, it might seem odd that a case about the Affordable Care Act would send civil rights experts scrambling back to their law books.

But the Supreme Court's ruling in the health care case involves the Commerce Clause and Congress' spending power, which happen to be the backbone of most civil rights legislation.

"The Commerce Clause and the impact on interstate commerce of various types of discrimination has traditionally formed the basis for many civil rights statutes," says Washington lawyer Robert Driscoll, who worked on civil rights in the George W. Bush Justice Department. "And unlike the health care case, civil rights statutes generally would not have a taxing provision which could provide the kind of save of the statute that happened for the health care case."

Concern About Coercion

In last week's health care decision, five justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, put important limits on the Commerce Clause for the first time in decades, raising questions about the implications for federal civil rights legislation.

But it's the second area of the ruling the one that talks about new limits to the Spending Clause that's really got the attention of civil rights lawyers.

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How The Health Care Ruling Might Affect Civil Rights