Funny, the Obama Administration is suddenly interested in getting more time to defend ObamaCare:
On Friday attorneys for the Obama administration filed a motion with the Supreme Court requesting more time in which to make its oral arguments in defense of ObamaCare.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) obligates every American to purchase a qualifying health insurance policy by 2014 or be subject to a tax penalty, with failure to pay possibly resulting in imprisonment.
The constitutionality of that requirement — known as the individual mandate — is being challenged in court by the National Federation of Independent Business and the State of Florida, among others. As the identical issues have been raised in more than one complaint, the court has consolidated the cases of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius and Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services. The third case that will be under review is that of the Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, et al.
In November, the court granted certiorari (a petition submitted requesting that the court hear an appeal from a lower appeals court) in these three of the several cases currently filed against the U.S. government.
In its motion, the federal government is asking the court for an additional 30 minutes, increasing the total time allotted for oral arguments to six hours from the five and a half originally set aside by the court.
When the matter was in front of Congress, they wanted less time. They rammed the sucker through. As Nancy Pelosi famously said at the time, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it…”
Now it appears that ObamaCare will be debated longer than it ever was in Congress in the Supreme Court.
Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @AdamBitely.
