Health reform lawsuit appears headed for Supreme Court
The Obama administration chose not to ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to re-hear a pivotal health reform case Monday, signaling that it’s going to ask the Supreme Court to decide whether President Barack Obama’s health reform law is constitutional.The move puts the Supreme Court in the difficult position of having to decide whether to take the highly politically charged case in the middle of the presidential election.
The Justice Department is expected to ask the court to overturn an August decision by a panel of three judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that found the law’s requirement to buy insurance is unconstitutional. The suit was brought by 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business, and several individuals.
Since the ruling, the Justice Department had until Monday to ask the entire 11th Circuit to review the case. Administration lawyers didn’t file the paperwork by the 5 p.m. deadline, so the ruling would stand unless the Justice Department asks the Supreme Court to step in.
Just saw that. Hope some of our legal eagles will weigh in.
I definitely don’t want it after Elena Kagan touched it.
*shudders*
@ Bumr50:
No, she’s too busy screaming with glee over the elimination of DADT.
The irony is that Obamacare is clearly constitutional if it is defined as a tax. But Obama clearly told his Solicitor General to defend the policy as lawful via the interstate commerce provision. This was done for political purposes – if the requirement for all citizenry to acquire health insurance was defended as a tax by Obama, then it would hurt him politically. That said, if the requirement to purchase health insurance is overturned by the Supreme Court – which it might be – then Obamacare is not overturned. It simply becomes fiscally unviable. But all other aspects of Obamacare would remain.
Well, to my knowledge, nobody has filed a writ to grant cert yet, much less has one been accepted. But it’s obvious somebody will and it’s very likely it would be accepted, since there’s a clear conflict between district-level rulings. Something of real interest to watch this SCOTUS session… Popcorn time…
gerd medicine…
[...]Obamacare Finally Is Going to the Supreme Court › 2.0: The Blogmocracy[...]…