I‘m a political geek. I love politics. I have two degrees in the study of politics. I work in Washington. I have a news channel on throughout the day, even if it’s muted, I’ve got it on. I just had the best Monday ever.
On Monday, I got the rare opportunity to sit and listen to oral arguments at the Supreme Court of the United States, aka SCOTUS. In fact, my line number was 8. Yup, that’s only 7 people in front of me out of 60 seats. To add to my luck, my seat was, basically, at the 50-yard line of the chamber. I couldn’t see the Chief Justice because the lawyers arguing the case were right in front of me. I had better seats then members of Congress. The Secretary of HHS and the Attorney General was about 10 feet away. No big deal.
The case I heard, was arguing the application of the Anti-Injunction Act of 1867 (AIA) to other cases being brought against the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (heath care reform/ACA). The AIA says that no one can sue the government regarding a tax until it has been levied. The lawyers were arguing that the individual mandate penalty in the ACA is actually a penalty not a tax. (I just bored you didn’t I?) I understood about half of what was being argued. It was a lot of legalize and I am no lawyer or law scholar but hey, half ain’t bad?
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