THE SUPREME Court announced yesterday that it would hear challenges to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, his main domestic accomplishment so far, next March.
A decision should be handed down by July, just a few months before the November 2012 presidential election.
Republicans say the healthcare Bill, which Mr Obama signed in March 2010, impinges on individual freedom by requiring almost all Americans to obtain healthcare insurance by 2014, and that it places a crippling burden on businesses with more than 50 employees by requiring them to provide insurance or pay a fine.
A decision striking down the healthcare Bill could strengthen Republicans in next year’s elections.
All eight Republican presidential hopefuls have promised to repeal the Bill if they are elected. “Obamacare is the crown jewel of socialism,” Congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said earlier this year.
Under Chief Justice John Roberts, the court leans to the right. The case could be the most important legacy of the Roberts court, which has scheduled 5½ hours of oral arguments. Major cases are usually deliberated for an hour or two.
The first of more than 30 lawsuits against the Bill were filed within hours of its signing. The Supreme Court will consider challenges brought by Republican governors and attorneys general from 26 states, as well as the National Federation of Independent Business.
The court will consider at least four aspects of the Bill.
Does a clause allowing Congress to regulate commerce give the legislature the constitutional right to force Americans to obtain insurance through a so-called “individual mandate”? If the individual mandate is struck down, do other parts of the law – for example forbidding insurance companies from rejecting customers because of pre-existing conditions – remain valid? Does the federal government have the right to expand the obligations of states to finance Medicaid insurance for the poor?
Finally, the court will decide if legal challenges are premature under the Anti-Injunction Act, which says suits against a government-imposed tax cannot be heard until that tax is collected.
The first penalties for non-compliance with the healthcare Bill would not be due until April 2015.
Both the White House and opponents of the Bill had urged the Supreme Court to decide the issue, and both reacted favourably to its being scheduled yesterday.
“We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and are confident the Supreme Court will agree,” said White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer.