Education Spending Raised in Arguments on Health-Care Law

Washington

For the U.S. Supreme Court, the closely watched six hours of arguments last week were all about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. So how did the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, teacher tenure, curriculum, Title IX, and other education topics become part of the discussion?

They came up as the justices debated whether the health-care law's expansion of the Medicaid program would give the federal government limitless powers to impose conditions on the states when they accept money in other areas, such as education.

The Medicaid question was the last one to be tackled by the justices in three historic days of arguments over the 2010 law championed by President Barack Obama. In related cases, the high court is also weighing the constitutionality of the law's individual mandate, which would require most uninsured Americans to obtain health-care coverage or pay a penalty, and whether the rest of the law could survive if...