SCOTUS Adds 30 Minutes for Anti-Injunction Act Oral Argument

02/21/12

By Hadley Heath

Today the Supreme Court announced that it will bump the time allotment for oral arguments on the Anti-Injunction Act issue from 60 to 90 minutes.  This means the total time for oral arguments in the ObamaCare lawsuit will be six hours.

Here's the latest breakdown:

• Anti-Injunction Act: 90 minutes

• Individual mandate: 120 minutes

• Severability: 90 minutes

• Medicaid: 60 minutes

The Anti-Injunction Act issue is under consideration because of a ruling in Liberty v. Geithner that essentially deemed the individual mandate a Constitutional exercise of Congress's taxing power.  

In my view, the worst possible outcome of this Supreme Court battle is that the Court call the mandate a tax.  Everyone recognizes that it is NOT a tax (including the acting White House budget director), but a ruling to the contrary would delay a ruling on the health care law until as late as 2016.  

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