In just a few weeks, the Supreme Court will hear three days of oral arguments on the biggest health insurance related case of the year. The audio of the arguments will be released the same day that the arguments are heard. This has never happened before.
The Supreme Court will be hearing a case about specific parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Some have referred to the ACA as “Obamacare”, but that is not the actual name of it. Essentially, the two names are referring to the exact same set of health reform laws.
On March 26, 2012, the Supreme Court will hear one hour of oral arguments. The focus will be on a federal law called the Anti-Injunction Act. The arguments will discuss the requirement that all Americans buy health insurance, or pay a penalty. That requirement has been called the individual mandate.
The Supreme Court must decide whether or not that penalty is a tax. If it is a tax, then it is covered by the Anti-Injunction Act. This would mean that the individual mandate could not be challenged in court until after someone had actually been made to pay the tax.
On March 27, 2012, the Supreme Court will hear two hours of oral arguments. These arguments will focus on whether or not Congress has overstepped its powers by creating the individual mandate.
On March 28, 2012, the Supreme Court will hear 90 minutes of arguments. These arguments are going to focus on whether or not Congress coerced states into expanding their Medicaid program.
The Supreme Court is expected to make its decision about these issues by the middle of June of 2012. You won’t have to wait until June, though, to hear what was said. The Supreme Court is going to release same-day audio from each day. This is being done due to “extraordinary public interest”.
There was concern that people would be lining up outside the court, and sleeping there overnight, in the hopes of getting one of the 400 seats in the courtroom. I imagine that this would look very similar to the lines of people waiting in the cold in front of retail stores for the Black Friday sales. This could still happen, but the hope is that the same-day release of the audio will reduce the number of people who choose to form a line, days ahead of time, outside the court.
The audio will be posted on the Supreme Court’s website after the arguments for each day are over. It is expected that the audio will be released no later than 2:00 in the afternoon on the first two days, and no later than 4:00 in the afternoon for the third day.