The Obama Administration wants to bide its time on its legal defense of health care reform. In a statement to reporters Thursday morning, spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler says the Department of Justice is opposed to calls — by Republicans and some Democrats — for an expedited Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the health care law’s individual mandate.
“The Department continues to believe this case should follow the ordinary course of allowing the court of appeals to hear it first so the issues and arguments concerning the Affordable Care Act can be fully developed before the Supreme Court decides whether to consider it,” she says.
Several weeks after a Republican federal judge in Virginia ruled the mandate unconstitutional, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli announced he will petition the Supreme Court to leapfrog the appellate courts take up the issue promptly. In the wake of a separate ruling by a Republican judge in Florida this week, Sen. Bill Nelson wants the Senate to endorse that idea.
But the administration is in no hurry.
“Virginia’s suit is based on a state statute that is not applicable nationwide,” Schmaler says. “This case is one of two that are already scheduled for argument in the Fourth Circuit this May, so going through the usual process would make little difference in timing as to when the Supreme Court could hear it, while allowing the appellate court to thoroughly evaluate the issues. As Judge [Henry] Hudson noted in denying an injunction, the individual responsibility provision does not go into effect until 2014, so there is more than sufficient time for this case to proceed first in the court of appeals.”
Ultimately, though, this decision falls to the Supreme Court, which already denied one such petition in a case that’s headed for the ninth circuit court of appeals.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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