Bypassing Appellate Review (HCR)

[Fotheringay-Phipps]

Va. to Ask Supreme Court to Rule on Health Law

Virginia’s attorney general announced on Thursday that he hoped to bypass an initial appellate review by asking the United States Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of the Obama health care law on an expedited basis.

Only rarely does the Supreme Court grant such hearings, and it has already rejected a similar request in another legal challenge to the health care act.

I can’t understand what possible reason there could be for the SC to not take this up immediately. Virtually everyone agrees that they will have to take it up eventually. And it’s not like there’s a lot of new legal ground being broken in arguments in the intermediate steps. ISTM that the arguments for and against are already out there. Meanwhile there’s an uncertainty that only the SC can settle.

Why not?

[howye]

There may be a lot of debate and political rhetoric, but there is not a lot of legal scholarship covering both sides of the issue. Plus, this is not an issue that has bubbling away in the lower or state courts for years.

Essentially, SCOTUS wants the appeals to happen so that it can see more material written on the issue.

[Rumor_Watkins]

@howye

There may be a lot of debate and political rhetoric, but there is not a lot of legal scholarship covering both sides of the issue. Plus, this is not an issue that has bubbling away in the lower or state courts for years.

Essentially, SCOTUS wants the appeals to happen so that it can see more material written on the issue.

I would argue the opposite. I think they want the issue as whittled down as it can get, so they can focus on very narrow questions of law and not completely knicker up commerce clause jurisprudence.

[Tom_Tildrum]

It’s also possible that all of the appellate courts will agree, and there will thus be less reason for the S.Ct. to take the case.