4 Questions That Could Make or Break the Health Care Law
It’s the hottest ticket in Washington, D.C. Even the flossiest lawyers in town can’t get a seat. Senators, congressmen, cabinet and White House officials are all vying for a place.
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.
The theory of the law is that we could not have an effective tax system if every time somebody thought a tax provision was unconstitutional, he could just refuse to pay until a court makes a ruling. Thus, the Anti-Injunction Act requires people to pay the tax and then challenge it.
Under the health care law, the penalty for not having health insurance, which is paid to the IRS, doesn’t kick in until 2015, so the argument is that there is no case because nobody has paid the penalty or suffered any financial injury yet.
Assuming the Supreme Court rules that there can be an immediate challenge to the law, the big issue, the central controversy, is the so-called individual mandate.