10/20/2011
The U.S. Supreme Court’s nine justices who serve without seeking election will soon have to decide whether or not they would want to immerse themselves into the hub of the presidential campaign next year.
The high court will begin its new term Monday, and the health care overhaul of President Obama, which affects nearly everyone in the nation, is squarely in its sights.
The request of the Obama administration last week for the justices to resolve whether the health care legislation is constitutional makes it very likely that they will announce their verdict by June of 2012, just as Obama and his Republican opponent rush toward the fall campaign.
GOP presidential hopefuls are already using virtually every speech and debate to attack the key domestic accomplishment of Mr. Obama, which aims to broaden the scope of health insurance by mandating coverage to over 30 million people now without coverage.
If the justices agree to review the constitutionality of the law, those deliberations would definitely characterize the coming term of the high court. Their ruling could potentially rank as the most significant since the high court’s ruling in December 2000 that effectively sealed the election of George W. Bush as president.
According to Neal Katyal, the former acting Solicitor General, the health care reform law is only one of the various issues which the U.S. Supreme Court that makes for a “fantastic Supreme Court term.” Mr. Katyal is now in private practice at the law firm Hogan Lovells.
Other high-profile cases concern hot button issues like immigration and affirmative action, which could only become more sensational during an election year.
