Pressure is mounting for the Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, with six petitions for review now before the high court.
Most recently, Liberty University filed a petition for writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court justices to consider overturning a ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that dismissed Liberty’s ACA challenge. The college had argued that the health law’s tax penalties for Americans who did not obtain insurance were unconstitutional. However, the appeals court dismissed the case, saying that Liberty could not challenge the law until the law’s tax penalties went into effect in 2014.
If the Supreme Court chooses to take up the ACA, as legal scholars predict it will, the justices will have their pick of cases. In addition to Liberty University’s petition, the Obama administration recently requested a review from the high court. The Justice Department asked the high court to reconsider a decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that struck down the health law’s so-called individual mandate. That court ruled that the mandate to buy insurance was a violation of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause.
The Supreme Court also has received petitions requesting review of the constitutional questions surrounding the ACA from a coalition of 26 states, the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Mich., the National Federation of Independent Business, and the state of Virginia.
The current Supreme Court session began Oct. 3. If the justices take up one of the ACA cases, a decision is likely to be handed down during the height of the 2012 presidential campaign.