por admin » Lun Mar 26, 2012 4:40 pm
Los jueces de la Corte Suprema mostraron muy poca simpatia el Lunes sobre la posicion que ellos deben esperar hasta el 2014 o despues para retar la ley del Presidente Obama de Seguro de salud. Hoy se inicio la discusion de tres dias.
El tema central del asunto es si el Congreso puede requerir que todos los Americanos compren seguro de salud o paguen una penalidad junto con sus impuestos. Pero el litigador de Washington Robert Long, dijo que la corte no podia entretener la pregunta hasta que el pago de la penalidad se haya realizado en dos anios. El cito el estatuto de un caso del siglo diecinueve , el Anti-Injunction Act, que protegia los ingresos del gobierno previniendo los jucios contra el cobro de los impuestos.
El "pagar primero, y litigar despues" se palica a cada penalidad de impuestos en el Codigo de Impuestos. No hay razon para pensar que el Congreso ha hecho una excepcion especial para esta penalidad" por no tener seguro de salud" dijo Mr. Long.
Aunque una de las cortes de apelaciones" el Cuarto Circuito, en Richomond, Va., tomo esa posicion, ni la administracion de Obama ni los demandantes estan de acuerdo. Por eso la corte escogio a Mr. Long para presentar el argumento.
El argumento de Mr. Long reune las condiciones de tanto los jueces liberales como de los conservadores quienes son considerados escepticos.
POLITICSUpdated March 26, 2012, 3:57 p.m. ET
Justices Hear Health-Law Arguments
By JESS BRAVIN, LOUISE RADNOFSKY and BRENT KENDALL
WASHINGTON—Supreme Court justices showed little sympathy Monday for the position that they must wait until 2014 or after to decide on the challenge to President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul law, as three days of arguments on the law opened.
The case's central issue is whether Congress can require Americans to carry health insurance or pay a penalty along with their income taxes. But Washington litigator Robert Long, appointed by the court to present the argument, said the court couldn't entertain that question until the penalty takes effect in two years. He cited a 19th century statute, the Anti-Injunction Act, intended to protect the government's revenue stream by forestalling pre-emptive lawsuits against tax assessments.
The "pay first, litigate late rule…applies to essentially every tax penalty in the Internal Revenue Code. There is no reason to think Congress made a special exemption for the penalty" for failing to carry health insurance," Mr. Long said.
Although one federal appeals court, the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., took that position, neither the Obama administration nor the challengers agree. That's why the court tapped Mr. Long to present the argument.
Mr. Long's argument met challenges both from liberal justices presumed likely to uphold the health law and conservatives considered skeptical.
Justice Stephen Breyer suggested that the rationale for the Anti-Injunction Act—protecting government revenue--didn't apply to the insurance penalty.
"One thing that's relevant in my mind is that taxes are, for better or for worse, the life's blood of government," Justice Breyer said. While the health-law penalty is expected to generate revenue, its purpose wasn't to fund the government but to drive people into the insurance pool, he suggested.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed, saying: "This is not a revenue-raising measure, because, if it's successful … nobody will pay the penalty."
Chief Justice John Roberts had a different reason for questioning the need for delay. He observed that in a 1937 challenge to the Social Security Act, the Supreme Court permitted the government to waive any right it had to delay the case under the Anti-Injunction Act.
Monday's Supreme Court hearing on whether President Obama's health-care law is constitutional is being called the biggest case in a generation. WSJ's Neil Hickey reports on the diehards who've braved cold and rainy nights to reserve their front row seat to history.
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."Are you asking us to overrule" that decision, he asked.
Mr. Long said that the court's understanding of the Anti-Injunction Act had changed through subsequent decisions, and that it now should be considered mandatory—not an option for the government.
The courtroom was packed for the case, with all 117 seats in the press gallery taken and more than a dozen other reporters listening to an audio feed in an overflow room. Attorney General Eric Holder attended, as did Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.).
.The court provided 120 courtroom seats for members of the public who lined up to attend the entire 90-minute argument, with 34 additional seats for those interested only in a three- to five-minute glimpse.
Outside, hundreds of activists demonstrated. Some supporters of the law chanted "I love ObamaCare," while opponents carried yellow "Don't tread on me" flags.
The Supreme Court has scheduled an additional four-and-a-half hours of oral arguments on the health-care law, including two hours Tuesday on the mandate to carry insurance or pay a penalty. That is expected to be the highlight of the three days as the lead lawyers for both sides address the core constitutional issue.
View Slideshow
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
People waited in line outside the Supreme Court in Washington Sunday, hoping to snag seats for the oral arguments in the health-care overhaul case.
. More photos and interactive graphics
.On Wednesday, the court will consider whether the rest of the health-care overhaul can remain intact if the insurance mandate is ruled invalid. The law's challengers are seeking to void the entire law, while the Obama administration argues that most of the law's provisions aren't connected to the mandate and should remain in place even if the insurance requirement is struck down.
The court will also consider 26 states' legal attack against the health-care law's expansion of Medicaid, a federal-state partnership that provides health care to low-income Americans. Lower courts ruled for the Obama administration on this issue.
A decision in the case is expected by the end of June.
In Monday's arguments, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, representing the Obama administration, articulated a complicated position. He contended that the mandate's penalty wasn't a tax as far as the Anti-Injunction Act was concerned. But anticipating Tuesday's arguments over the penalty's validity, he also said the health law could be upheld under the government's constitutional power to levy taxes.
"Congress has authority under the taxing power to enact a measure not labeled as a tax, and it did so when it put Section 5000A [the penalty] into the Internal Revenue Code," Mr. Verrilli said.
"Today you are arguing that the penalty is not a tax. Tomorrow you are going to be back and you will be arguing that the penalty is a tax," said Justice Samuel Alito. "Has the court ever held that something that is a tax for purposes of the taxing power under the Constitution is not a tax under the Anti-Injunction Act?"
"No," Mr. Verrilli said.
The solicitor general would have had an easier time had the government taken the position that it could simply waive the option of postponing consideration of the case. But for reasons unrelated to the health care law, the government didn't want to take that position
Mr. Verrilli said the government feared that federal judges might start to allow pre-emptive challenges to other tax assessments.