WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled a week?s worth of oral arguments over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Huffington Post reports. The high court will hear the case March 26, 27 and 28.
The entire court calendar for the week in late March will be dedicated to President Obama?s health-care reform law. The March hearings will likely mean a ruling before July 4 when campaigning for the November election is in full force.
The justices will hear more than five hours of oral arguments, the most ever allowed in modern times. The only case that came close was the McCain-Feingold campaign finance case in 2003 that logged four hours of argument.
The news source notes that on March 26, the court will devote an hour?s argument to whether court action is too early, given no one has yet been fined for refusal to participate in the new law?s provisions. The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided in early 2011 that it was premature for a court to rule on the law for that very reason.
On March 27, oral arguments will consume two hours and the topic will be whether Congress has the authority to make citizens buy health insurance or pay a fine. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Congress did overstep its power in that mandate, saying that the governing body can?t make Americans ?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.?
Then on March 28, 90 minutes will be designated for whether the law can be administered without the individual mandate and a final hour will go to whether the law can coerce states into participating by withholding federal funds.
The news source wrote that the opposition contends the entire law falls apart if the individual mandate is unconstitutional, while the Obama administration posits that the majority of the law could still work without the individual mandate.
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