Spectator point-by-point guides to the Supreme Court's health law review

Mar 26 2012

As the health law's challengers and defenders head to court, media outlets take big-picture looks at how the upcoming three days of arguments could play out, provide primers that detail the key aspects of the issues in play as well and give a heads up on what to watch for.   

The Wall Street Journal: Health Law Heads To Court
The court this week hears three days of arguments on the law's constitutionality, with a ruling expected in late June. The administration and its allies say the court must uphold the law to ensure that Congress can tackle national problems by employing comprehensive solutions. In jeopardy, critics say, is the fundamental American conceit that the federal government should be restricted in what it can require of citizens (Bravin, 3/26).

NPR: 4 Questions That Could Make Or Break The Health Law
At the U.S. Supreme Court, people have been lining up for days, waiting to hear this week's historic oral arguments on President Obama's health care law. The arguments will last for six hours over a three-day period, the longest argument in more than 40 years. The court has boiled the arguments down into four questions. The first, and threshold question is Monday, when the justices must decide whether an 1867 law called the Tax Anti-Injunction Act prevents the court from even considering this bill right now (Totenberg and Rovner, 3/26).

The Wall Street Journal: A Primer On The Issues, Likely Outcomes
With the Supreme Court set to hear arguments Monday on the 2010 health-overhaul law, here is a primer on some of the legal issues. Q: What will the Supreme Court try to determine when it reviews the health law starting Monday? A: There are multiple issues in the case, but the main one is whether the law's requirement that most people carry insurance or pay a fee, known as the "individual mandate," violates the Constitution (Radnofsky, 3/25).

Politico: 5 Things To Watch In Health Law Arguments
The Super Bowl for Supreme Court watchers kicks off this week as the justices hear three days of oral arguments in what could be the blockbuster case of a generation: whether President Barack Obama's signature law overhauling the American health care system is constitutional. The stakes couldn't be higher for Obama, for the balance of power between the states and federal government and for the reputation of the court itself (Haberkorn and Gerstein, 3/26).

Politico: Pick An Ending: 6 Ways The Supreme Court Might Rule
The health reform law is complex, and the Supreme Court has a lot of options, ranging from upholding the entire law to overturning it completely. Based on the arguments being made by the law's opponents and the Justice Department, these are the likely scenarios (Nather, 3/26).

Reuters: Supreme Court Weighs Historic Health Care Law
Two years after President Barack Obama signed into law a health care overhaul, the Supreme Court on Monday takes up a historic test of whether it is valid under the country's Constitution. The sweeping law intended to transform health care for millions of people in the United States has generated fierce political debate. Republicans challenging Democrat Obama for the presidency in November and Republican members of Congress have vowed to roll back the March 23, 2010, law they say will financially burden states, businesses and individuals. Now, the health care battle moves from the U.S. political arena to the less raucous world of its highest court (Biskupic and Vicini, 3/26).

USA Today: 3 Epic Days: Health Care Law Reaches High Court
Health coverage for more than 30 million people. The power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. President Obama's re-election. The reputation of the Supreme Court and the legacy of its chief justice. And to hear some tell it: liberty. All that and more could be at stake today when the Supreme Court begins three days of historic oral arguments on a 2010 health care law that has become a symbol of the nation's deep political divide (Wolf, 3/25).

The Associated Press: How Health Care Case Will Unfold Before The Court
The Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments on Monday over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, derisively labeled "Obamacare" by its opponents. A look at how the case will unfold before the court in question-and-answer form (Holland, 3/26).

San Francisco Chronicle: U.S. Supreme Court Health Care Law Review To Start
The stakes couldn't be higher as legal and health policy experts parse each word the justices utter during six hours of oral arguments over three days this week, sifting for clues on how they will rule in what's shaping up as a landmark decision.The court's opinion, expected by the end of June, could well be its most significant statement on the limits of congressional regulatory power since the 1930s, when the justices struck down and then upheld President Roosevelt's New Deal (Freedman and Colliver, 3/26).

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Health Care Reform On The Docket
It is the legal equivalent of the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the NBA playoffs rolled into one. When the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court gather Monday in their ornate courtroom to begin three days of hearings on President Obama's overhaul of the nation's health care system, they will be deciding the constitutionality of what many experts say is the most far-reaching economic and social legislation since the Great Society programs of the 1960s. … Although the court is divided along ideological lines, there is no clear indication of how it will rule (Mondics, 3/25).