Live Blog: 'Obamacare' Challenged at the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court begins a marathon three days of arguments on the health reform law, more commonly known as the "Affordable Care Act" or "Obamacare."
See all of ABC's previous health reform coverage at this special "Obamacare Challenged" page and follow developments throughout the day at this live blog.
11:06 - Obama v. Obama on Health Care Reform - ABC's Jonathan Karl reports: Mitt Romney is not the only one with a flip flop issue when it comes to health care. As a new video by the Republican Super PAC American Crossroads vividly reminds us, Barack Obama strongly opposed the idea of forcing people to buy health insurance (the so-called individual mandate at the center of this week's Supreme Court case) when the idea was proposed by Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary.
It is one of the political oddities of the health care debate that the battle over the individual mandate - the aspect of Obamacare most hated by the Tea Pary - was an idea strenuously opposed by candidate Obama and long supported by conservatives ranging from Newt Gingrich and the Heritage Foundation to Mitt Romney.
10:48 - This Week Rewind - Plouffe vs. Bachmann - David Plouffe is one of President Obama's top advisers and he argued the law in constitutional in an interview with George Stephanopoulos yesterday.
"As it relates to the Supreme Court, we're confident that it's going to be upheld, he said, adding, "You had Democratic and Republican jurists upheld it in lower court decisions, including two very prominent conservative jurists." Plouffe said people don't want to re-fight the political battle again even though most of the law does not take effect until 2014.
"When the reality of health reform is in place," said Plouffe, "it will be nothing like the fear mongering."
Stephanopoulos also talked to former presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann , who said any GOP nominee would fight to repeal the law.
"The real issue that most Americans are concerned about is the constitutionality of the government forcing Americans to pay for a very expensive insurance policy," Bachmann said. "The people do not like this bill at all. They do not like the federal government forcing them to spend their money in a way that they don't want to spend it."
10:42 a.m. ET - Call it Obamacare - Democrats have generally shied away from calling the health reform law Obamacare. They like to call it the "Affordable Care Act." But on Friday - the two year anniversary of the president signing the law - the president's campaign attempted to claim the "Obamacare" phrase from Republicans. President Obama has in the past said he doesn't care if people call it "Obamacare"; "I do care," he has said. It will be interesting to see if Democrats really embrace the term. Read more about whether it's OK to call it Obamacare .
10:37 a.m. ET - Doctors on Both Sides - There are plenty of physicians on both sides of the health reform law. Most of the doctors in Congress oppose the law. There are two doctors in the senate and both - Sen. John Barasso of Wyoming and Tom Coburn or Oklahoma - fought against it. But it does have it's supporters, including a group that spoke earlier this morning at the court.
Image Credit: Matt Negrin
10:27 - Santorum Expected - T-Minus two hours until Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who is running for president as a Republican, is scheduled to make an appearance outside the Supreme Court. He is trying to more pointedly draw health reform into his campaign against Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination. Romney helped inspire the national health reform law by enacting a state health reform law in Massachusetts. Romney has said the state law would not work on the national stage and pledged to try to repeal "Obamacare" if he's elected as president.
10:22 a.m. EST - Glossary - Confused by the "individual mandate?" Not sure what "severability" is? Curious about why the Medicaid expansion is so aggravating to some governors? Check out our Cliff's Notes glossary of what the justices will be saying.
Image Credit: Matt Negrin
10:08 a.m. EST - Arguments should be getting underway inside the chamber. But because the Supreme Court does not allow live broadcast, we're not entirely sure what's being said. We'll know more in about 90 minutes. A transcript is expected later today so that court watchers can read tea leaves on whether their questions hold any clues to how they will vote later this year when the decision is handed down. Today's arguments are concerned with whether the penalty assessed against people who don't have insurance is a tax or a fine and how that works with the Anti-Injunction Act.It is a technical argument, but how justices decide could mean the decision is punted until 2015, when the first fine/tax for not purchasing health insurance would be assessed.
Read more here about the Anti-Injunction Act.
Tomorrow's arguments have to do with the Individual Mandate.
Image Credit: Matt Negrin
9:53 a.m. EST - Not everyone protesting at the court is there specifically for the health reform arguments. Matt Negrin snaps this photo of opponents of abortion rights who protest every day at the court.
9:44 a.m. EST - What to Expect - We're calling it a marathon three days of arguments, and for the Supreme Court it is a relative marathon. But oral arguments today are only scheduled to last 90 minutes. See the full schedule from Ariane de Vogue here.
Monday: Anti Injunction Act (AIA): Very technical arguments expected on a key question that could punt this whole issue down the road 3-4 years. At issue is a federal law (the AIA) that says that courts can't consider a challenge to a tax until that tax is actually assessed.
If the Supreme Court rules that the AIA applies to the health care law then no challenge to the individual mandate can be heard until after 2014, when it goes into effect, unless Congress acts. One appeals court in Richmond dismissed a challenge to the mandate based on the AIA, and one very conservative judge on the DC Court of Appeals came to the same conclusion in a dissenting opinion. Neither the challengers nor the government believe the AIA should apply, so the court hired a lawyer to argue a position that neither of the other parties would argue - that the challenge to the individual mandate is premature and can only be brought once it goes into effect in 2014.
90-minutes of arguments begin at 10 am.
Arguing for the government: Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr.
Opposition: Gregory G. Katsas for the National Federation of Ind. Business
Court appointed amicus counsel: Robert A. Long
Image Credit: Matt Negrin
9:30 a.m. EST - A Band, Cutting in Line and the Last Ticket In- From Matt Larotonda outside the court - A brass band and bongo drum have appeared in the picket line formed by supporters of the health reform law. The bongo drum made the line seem more like something you might see parading in New Orleans.
Despite the divisive debate the people on line have referred to each other as a family. There have been no quarrels on the merits of the law, but some disagreements over line cutting.
A pair of friends, one for and one against the law, took it upon themselves to organize the campers to maintain the "integrity of the line." With clipboards the duo took names of their peers to discourage line cutters.
The last ticket into the court for oral arguments split a group of three students on the line, leaving one in the cold.
9:18 a.m. EST - First Person in Line - Our Supreme Court reporter Ariane de Vogue talked to the first person in line:
Reverend Rob Schenck, President of the National Clergy Counsel, held a pink ticket with a big number 1 on it to signify his place in line at the Supreme Court this morning. "I am indeed the first person in line" he said, "I've got the lucky number!" He had a team of people helping him hold his place in line.
Why is he here?
"The implications of this reform act for religious organizations are enormous, " he says, "the tension between compassionate care for people which is a very very important one for us is met with a conflict with our own consciences because of the nature of the health insurance policies that individuals and organizations will now be forced to carry if this survives the Supreme Court."
Ariane de Vogue
The line to get into oral arguments - the court chambers hold only several hundred people - had formed last Friday, when our Senate producer, Sunlen Miller, interviewed a handful of people already camped out in front of the Supreme Court. They wouldn't give her their names because they were being paid to hold the spots in line. Schenck was not in front of the court Friday. Read more about the line on Friday here.
Compiled by ABC's Z. Byron Wolf
