Supreme Court health care hearing draws cheers from left and right

WASHINGTON—As the second day of oral arguments over the federal health care law wrapped up in the Supreme Court building, outside, two camps formed in front of the white marble steps that lead to the court chambers.

Earlier in the day, demonstrators for and against the health care law co-mingled outside, but by the time the justices had finished inside, picketers had parted ways, divided by a very apparent—albeit invisible—line. On the right, an older crowd of hundreds of marching tea party supporters chanted while hundreds more on the left side of the steps danced to the song "Celebrate Good Times."

Walking in circles between the occasional George Washington lookalike in 18th-century garb, the tea party demonstrators waved yellow Gadsden flags while donning red shirts that read "Hands Off My Health Care!" The shirts came courtesy of the organizing group Americans for Prosperity. As country music blasted over the loudspeaker, they shouted the borrowed protest line, "Hey hey! Ho Ho! Obamacare has got to go!" and held up homemade signs that read "It's Not Working," "I'm Mad, Big Government, Remember in November," and "Don't Tread on Me!" In the very center of all this hoopla a man held a giant red octagonal sign that read "Stop Change Before It's Too Late" with a hammer and sickle. in the letter "C."

On the other side, liberal supporters of the law huddled close to each other to hear a report from an ally who had watched the oral arguments. The signs they waved were more uniform than their counterparts, reading "Birth Control for Me" and "Protect the Law." As they craned their necks to hear a report about why the speaker thought the court would uphold the law, the conservatives kept celebrating.

At around noon, most of the tea party supporters left the court for an AFP rally a few blocks down, where they met thousands of others in a park across the street from the Senate.

One man, standing near the press riser in the middle of the crowd at the park, approached the row of television cameras covering the event. When he went to sit down on the press platform, a cameraman shooed him away.

"Oh don't bother them," a tea partier who watched the interaction said in a mocking tone. "They're the press," he added, as he put his finger to his nose and gestured toward the cameraman.

"Hey!" the cameraman said from the riser. "How's your mom?"

"She's dead," the tea partier said.

"Mine too," the cameraman said.

"Maybe they're friends," the tea party supporter replied.

"Yeah, maybe," the cameraman said, adding, "A-hole!"

Meanwhile, the man looking for a chair found a seat on a nearby cart, undisturbed.

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