WHEN WILL THE SUPREME COURT HEAR THE CASE?

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Tom Salmon

What follows is an excerpt from today’s Cuccinelli Compass by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.


Some developments took place last week in the healthcare cases that warranted me updating you on the status of all of these cases, including Virginia’s.

There are three courts of appeals rulings that are headed to the Supreme Court for that court’s consideration.  The 6th Circuit case out of Michigan, our case in the 4th Circuit, and our 27 sister states’ case out of Florida in the 11th Circuit.

In the 6th Circuit, the federal government won, so the private parties have appealed to the Supreme Court and the federal government has responded to that appeal.

In the 11th Circuit, the states won, so the federal government this week filed its appeal of that decision to the Supreme Court.

And last but not least, in the 4th Circuit, the federal government won, so we have filed our appeal to the Supreme Court.

There are different elements to all of these decisions which I won’t go into today, as the most important new information this week is how all of the decisions and actions of the federal government have effected the schedule for the case.

Essentially, the federal government got off the brake and hit the gas.  They appear to have decided over at the Department of Justice that they want to complete this case relatively expeditiously.  This is a complete change from their earlier strategy of delaying the case as best they could.

Thus, approximately by the end of October the requests to the Supreme Court that they hear these cases will all be in, and the Supreme Court will have then hold a “conference” among the nine justices at which they consider all of the requests for appeals.

I would be shocked if some portion of these cases are not taken up by the Court, so for purposes of discussion, let’s just assume that the Supreme Court will hear these cases.

As early as late October or November the Court will decide what legal questions they want us all to address and they will set a briefing schedule for the case.

That briefing schedule will take us into 2012, when the case will probably be argued in the late winter/spring, and it will be decided by the end of June of 2012.

I thought you’d like to know that!  I will get back to you soon regarding details of the specific legal questions that are being proposed to the Supreme Court, and then again as the Supreme Court lets us know what it decides about how the case(s) will be presented … and when!

To help add some context, here are several news articles.

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