Supreme Court to Rule on Healthcare Law Constitutionality

In September, the Justice Department said it would forgo an appeal to the full U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which ruled 2-1 in August that the healthcare reform law’s requirement that people buy health insurance is unconstitutional. The suit before a threemember panel of the court was brought by 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business and several individuals. Opponents of the law had expected the government to ask for the so-called en banc hearing to delay a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court until at least 2013. The decline of the appeal and the subsequent request by the Obama administration for the Supreme Court to hear the case clears the way for arguments on the constitutionality of the healthcare law in the spring and a decision by June, in time to land in the middle of the 2012 presidential campaign.