The debate over what has come to be called Obamacare moved into the eye of a political storm last week as the U.S. Supreme Court weighed the law’s constitutionality. With its civilized tone, the legal discourse was akin to the calm in the center of a hurricane. But at the periphery of the same storm, a multitude of other legal fights are sweeping through federal courts across the country, evidence of the tumultuous relationship between conservative states and the federal government. Some of the strongest winds are blowing out of Texas, a state with a passionate independent streak and a long history of conflict with the federal government.
“I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” President Obama said Monday of the High Court’s consideration of his signature health care legislation.
TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures of the past week from the Beltway and beyond.
If the Supreme Court strikes down the individual health insurance mandate, but leaves most or all of the rest of the Affordable Care Act intact, Congress will have some work to do. Without some way to push uninsured healthy Americans into the marketplace, insurance prices could creep upward until they become unaffordable for everyone.
TIME captures proponents and critics of the Affordable Care Act as they square off outside the Supreme Court, which is hearing arguments on the law’s constitutionality this week in Washington.
Stephen Colbert is laughing at the U.S. Supreme Court. He started Thursday night on his show, when he transferred control of his super PAC to his mentor, business partner and friend Jon Stewart. Here is the clip: It’s a great set piece of comedic theater underscored by a serious argument: Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined by [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court granted cert (PDF) this morning in three cases challenging several key elements of President Barack Obama’s health-care reform law: whether Congress can force Americans to purchase health care; whether all or part of the rest of the law is constitutional if that one provision is not; whether the penalty for not [...]
After hovering around split support since its passage, Obama’s health care overhaul has taken a sizable popularity hit this month according to new data form the excellent Kaiser Family Foundation, with just 34% of Americans now expressing a favorable opinion of the law. The drop appears to be primarily driven by Democrats, whose approval has [...]
The Obama administration’s decision to skip further appellate review on the Affordable Care Act is a risky but potentially high-value play by the White House in the legal battle over health care reform.
Rick Perry wants to have a conversation about federal entitlement programs. That conversation is, in effect, about how to end them. “I would suggest a legitimate conversation about [letting] the states keep their money and implement the programs,” he said of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to Newsweek’s Andrew Romano last year. This is, naturally, [...]
