Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

The ‘Heart’ of Health Care Reform: Can the Law Stand Without a Mandate?

Although the Supreme Court won’t rule until June and predicting its decision is impossible for even the most seasoned experts, Tuesday hearings on the health insurance mandate's constitutionality left its supporters worried it might not survive. If the requirement falls and the rest of the law remains, chaos could follow, along with a host of unintended consequences like rising premiums and even less access to coverage than exists today.

Sotomayor’s Aristotle

Most lawyers (and any one who’s seen Legally Blonde) know well Aristotle’s famous phrase: The law is reason free from passion.

Playing Good Cop/Bad Cop with Sotomayor?

The Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are either playing a very delicate game of good cop/bad cop with President Obama’s nominee to the nation’s highest court, Sonia Sotomayor, or they’re fracturing as a conference and a large number of Rs could end up voting for her.