The Supreme Court kicked off the first day of arguments in the case against the Affordable Care Act this morning -- it's the first three-day hearing in 45 years -- but today was arguably the least interesting day. At issue was not the individual mandate that conservatives loved until President Obama decided he agreed with them, but rather, an 1867 law about taxes called the Anti-Injunction Act.
The underlying concept is pretty straightforward: before a tax can be challenged in court, it has to be collected first. As this relates to "Obamacare," the question is whether the high court should even hear the case: if the health care mandate is enforced through a tax penalty, and that tax won't be collected until 2014 at the earliest, then it's possible that the Anti-Injunction Act should delay the proceedings. At least, that was the issue before the justices today. |