With the March dates set, it means a final decision on the massive health care overhaul will probably come before Independence Day in the middle of the presidential campaign. The new law has been vigorously opposed by all of Obama’s prospective GOP opponents. Republicans have branded the law unconstitutional since before Obama signed it in a March 2010 ceremony.
In an extraordinary move, the justices are hearing more than five hours of arguments over the health care overhaul. In the modern era, the last time the court increased that time anywhere near this much was in 2003 for consideration of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance overhaul. That case consumed four hours of argument.
The high court will start the week of arguments that Monday with one hour on whether court action is premature because no one yet has paid a fine for not participating in the overhaul.
Federal law generally prohibits challenges to taxes until they are paid. The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., ruled earlier this year that the penalty for not purchasing insurance will not be paid before federal income tax returns are due in April 2015, therefore it is too early for a court ruling.
Tuesday’s arguments will take two hours, with lawyers debating the central issue of whether Congress overstepped its authority by requiring Americans to purchase health insurance starting in 2014 or pay a penalty.
The White House says Congress used a “quintessential’’ power - its constitutional ability to regulate interstate commerce, including the health care industry - when it passed the overhaul.
But opponents of the law, and the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, say that Congress overstepped its authority when lawmakers passed the individual mandate. A divided Atlanta court panel ruled that Congress cannot require people to “enter into contracts with private insurance companies for the purchase of an expensive product from the time they are born until the time they die.’’
The Atlanta court is the only one of four appellate courts that found the mandate unconstitutional.
