In Health Case, Combustible Mix of Politics and Law : NPR
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to begin hearing oral arguments Monday in a Republican-led challenge to the national health care law that has convulsed the country and its political class for more than two years, and may well define President Obama’s tenure in the White House.
Call it what you will — the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare — the historic law and its insurance requirement signed by the president in March 2010 has spawned a hyperbolic vernacular (see: “death panels” and “Republicans want you to die”), multimillion dollar special interest advertising campaigns, and a slew of lawsuits with mixed outcomes.
It figured heavily in the Tea Party-fueled drubbing Democrats suffered in the 2010 mid-term elections when Republicans handily won control of the U.S. House. Obama described it as a “shellacking.”
And it has emerged as an issue in the GOP presidential primary contests, where front-runner Mitt Romney has been forced to defend his embrace of a health insurance mandate when he was governor of Massachusetts.
The president’s health care mandate, which was modeled on the Massachusetts plan? “Bad policy and wrong for America,” Romney said Friday in a USA Today opinion piece.
The nine justices, who typically lean conservative 5-4, are expected to rule on the highly-politicized case by June — right when Republicans wrap up their presidential primaries and caucuses.