The US Supreme Court Meets to Discuss Healthcare Act

Today was the first of a three-day session of the US Supreme Court to consider whether or not the President's healthcare act is constitutional. This has been a much-anticipated and oft-debated convening of the court, and reports about it are all over the news today.

Many people are debating whether The Court even has the right to hear this challenge in the first place. If it is determined that the requirement for everyone to have health insurance by 2014 or suffer a penalty is actually a tax, then this issue would not be one for the Supreme Court to consider.

However, early indications are that it appears that the Supreme Court Justices are not viewing that way. They are making arguments today that the word penalty is used and not tax. Also, the penalty is attached to a healthcare requirement, not to a tax. It is also mentioned that a penalty is not automatically considered a tax just because it is collected in the same manner that a tax is.

Of course, this is just the first day of the consideration of arguments, so it is still early yet. However, it appears that The Court has pretty much taken today to consider the tax argument and dismiss it. Now it seems they are eager to move on to actually debating the constitutionality of the law itself over the next two days. It will be interesting to follow the developments over the next two days and see how this turns out.