As my Constitutional law professor once quipped, “Congress can make you diaper your dog.”
However, beginning in 2014, can Congress make individuals pay a penalty if they do not have health insurance coverage?
Later today, the lawyers for the White House will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the Eleventh Circuit decision that the individual mandate of the health reform law is unconstitutional. We lawyers call this a “Petition for Writ of Certiorari.” Also known as a “Cert Petition,” it is a document that a losing party files with the Supreme Court asking the high court hear an appeal of a lower court decision.
The Supreme Court only grants certiorari in a handful of cases. As Ed Fensholt noted in his blog post on Tuesday, the Eleventh Circuit decision conflicted with another federal appeals court decision, issued weeks earlier. It is conflicts like this, between federal appeals courts, that the Supreme Court often resolves upon request.
The request for an appeal comes a few days before the start of the court’s October term which runs through June 2012. If all goes according to plan, the court will hear oral arguments next Spring and would issue a decision by June 2012. There is no guarantee that the court will rule on the validity of the individual mandate. One possibility is the court could rule that the issue is not ripe for appeal or that the parties challenging the law lack the standing to sue.
Stay tuned. It’s going to be an interesting Spring 2012.