Press Release from The Supreme Court
For Immediate Release
March 16, 2012
The Court will hear argument in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act cases on March 26, 27, and 28. Because of the extraordinary public interest in those cases, the Court will provide the audio recordings and transcripts of the oral arguments on an expedited basis through the Court's Website.
The Court will post the audio recordings and unofficial transcripts as soon as the digital files are available for uploading to the Website. The audio recordings and transcripts of the March 26-28 morning sessions should be available no later than 2 p.m. The recording and transcript of the March 28 afternoon session should be available no later than 4 p.m.
Anyone interested in the proceedings will be able to access the recordings and transcripts directly through links on the homepage of the Court's Website. The homepage currently provides links to the orders, briefs, and other information about the cases. The Court's Website address is www.supremecourt.gov.
Politico's Dylan Byers reports that CSpan will also be carrying the audio of the oral arguments:
We appreciate that the Supreme Court has taken steps to expedite the release of audio recordings of the oral arguments in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act cases on March 26, 27, and 28. C-SPAN will provide same-day airing of these arguments on C-SPAN3, C-SPAN Radio and C-SPAN.org as soon as they are released. At the same time, we are disappointed that the Court has rejected C-SPAN’s request for TV camera coverage of the oral arguments in this landmark case. We continue to believe allowing video coverage of Supreme Court oral arguments is in the public’s best interest.
The Supreme Court has denied access for media to televise the arguments live.
In November of 2011, the news first was reported that the Supreme Court had agreed to hear constitutionality challenges against Obama and Democrats' Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare and had allotted 5 1/2 hours of time to those arguments.
The arguments the Court originally agreed to hear:
* Granted, the issue of “severability” of the insurance mandate from the other provisions of the law, if the mandate is nullified (the only question in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius [docket 11-393] and question 3 in Florida, et al., v. Department of Health & Human Services [11-400]), cases consolidated for 90 minutes of oral argument.
* Granted, the constitutionality of the insurance mandate (question 1 in the government case, Department of Health & Human Services v. Florida, et al.), two hours of oral argument.
* Parties directed to brief and argue whether the lawsuit brought by the states challenging the insurance mandate is barred by the Anti-Injunction Act (an added question in the government case, 11-398), one hour of oral argument. (That order appeared to be limited to reviewing whether that Act only bars states from challenging the mandate; the question of whether that Act bars private entities from challenging the mandate was raised in the Liberty University case, and the Court did not grant that petition.)
* Granted, the constitutionality of the Medicaid expansion (question 1 in the Florida, et al., v. Department of Health and Human Services case, 11-400); one hour of oral argument.
(Recently the Court granted an additional half hour of arguments)After arguments are heard, it is generally expected that the Court will rule by June or early July, just months before the November presidential election.
In February 2012, Gallup found that 72 percent of Americans believe the individual mandate- the government’s requirement for Americans to purchase health insurance — is unconstitutional.
Among those that thought the healthcare law was a good thing, 54 percent believe the individual mandate is unconstitutional.
Even Obama's and Democratic politician's base, the majority of Democrats come in at 56 percent saying it is unconstitutional.
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