The Affordable Care Act isn’t the only consequential law whose fate the U.S. Supreme Court holds in its hands. Before the end of the month, the court is also expected to decide whether to hear a Montana campaign-finance case that …
Supreme Court
A Life in Photos: Justice Anthony Kennedy
From his boyhood in Sacremento to the bench in Washington, TIME traces the life of the Supreme Court’s pivotal swing vote.
The Lone Star Way: Why Texas’ Legal War with the Federal Government Could Be the Biggest One Yet
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 …
Obama’s ‘Unprecedented’ Remarks: Is the President Running Against the Supreme Court?
“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 …
Political Pictures of the Week, March 24-30
TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures of the past week from the Beltway and beyond.
Health Care After the Court: If the Individual Mandate Falls, What Next?
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 …
Supreme Court Health Care Protests in Pictures
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 vs. the Supreme Court: Testing the Limits of Super-PAC Coordination
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:
[vodpod …
SCOTUS To Hear Obamacare Before Election
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 …
Obama’s Health Reform Popularity Bind
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 …
Why Obama Wants a Supreme Court Fight on Health Reform in 2012
The Obama administration’s decision late Monday not to ask for a full court review of the August decision by two appeals court judges to strike down ObamaCare is a risky but potentially high-value play by the White House in the …
Rick Perry’s Social Security Conversation
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 …
Health Care Challenges Reach Next Level in Climb Toward Supreme Court
Two legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act will be argued in a Virginia courtroom Tuesday morning, moving them one step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court. The first, filed by the Commonwealth of Virginia, has already scored a …