# Anybody want to chime in on the Supreme Court's decision to review the health care law? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072 "2011-11-16T00:00:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![2ManyTacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/3da27b/32.png) [@2ManyTacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2ManyTacos)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/1 "2011-11-16T00:00:12Z")
This kind of thread has probably already been done to death, but I didn’t see any topics up here at the moment so what the Hell. What do you think about the Supreme Court’s decision to review the health care overhaul? Granted, their choice to do so was already a foregone conclusion given the historic nature of the ACA, but it’s still interesting to see them moving forward on this. Perhaps this topic should be geared more towards how people think the court will lean in its verdict instead of the court’s rationale to issue one at all. I figure that there’s probably a lot more legal experts on here than there are on other message boards I frequent, so a more informed opinion is always welcome. How do you think the court will lean in its verdict? What is your opinion of the ACA anyway? ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/2 "2011-11-16T01:24:38Z")
Five and a half hours of oral argument? What I don’t get is why they will need so much, and also how they came to that particular amount. The only thing I can say at this point is that I don’t think that they’re going to punt this till 2015 when someone is actually forced to pay something. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/3 "2011-11-16T02:48:05Z")
On this court, the law is dead. I’m just waiting till someone sues over SS taxes. Since stare decisis does not seem to be in this court’s view, that could go too. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/4 "2011-11-16T02:55:25Z")
AFAIU, the SC had to take the case, since two Federal District Courts found the law or portions of it unconstitutional, and the case was not appealed to the Federal Appeals Court. So if SC didn’t take this case, in the states covered by the two Federal District Courts Obamacare could not be implemented. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/5 "2011-11-16T18:54:36Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#): > > Five and a half hours of oral argument? What I don’t get is why they will need so much, and also how they came to that particular amount. 2 hours for individual mandate 90 minutes for separability 1 hours for Medicaid expansion and finally a 60 minute bonus round where all point values are doubled. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/6 "2011-11-16T23:19:53Z")
Considering that this court has previously ruled strongly in favor of the federal government’s power to regulate commerce, I don’t see how this can turn out as anything other than a 7-2 in favor of upholding the law, with maybe Thomas and Alito dissenting. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/7 "2011-11-16T23:55:58Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > On this court, the law is dead. Would you like to bet? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/8 "2011-11-17T01:44:39Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Would you like to bet? No. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/9 "2011-11-17T01:58:16Z")
Neither would I. I think there’s sufficient background to make a pretty good case that this court would uphold the law. It’s not a lock, but there’s evidence for it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/10 "2011-11-17T17:20:28Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > No. I figured you wouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/11 "2011-11-17T19:08:08Z")
It depends on whether the court wants to uphold precedent or just go with their political leanings. I can’t see any legal reason to overrule it, but there seemed no legal precedent for other rulings by this court. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/12 "2011-11-17T19:30:29Z")
There’s no way the court is going to void the entire law. I think they’ll support the entire thing, but if they don’t I seriously doubt they’d go any further then tossing the individual mandate and leaving the rest intact. Which raises the interesting question of what Congress will do if the Healthcare industry is forced to cover all comers, but healthy people can wait till their sick to get insurance. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-want-to-chime-in-on-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-review-the-health-care-law/603072/13 "2011-11-17T20:24:02Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > There’s no way the court is going to void the entire law. I think they’ll support the entire thing, but if they don’t I seriously doubt they’d go any further then tossing the individual mandate and leaving the rest intact. > > Which raises the interesting question of what Congress will do if the Healthcare industry is forced to cover all comers, but healthy people can wait till their sick to get insurance. If the individual mandate goes down, it will take down a lot of other parts of the bill with it, including the part that insurers can’t deny people who have preexisting conditions.