Administration: Supreme Court shouldn't hear health law case just yet

There is “no persuasive reason” to fast-track Virginia’s challenge of the healthcare reform law to the Supreme Court, the Obama administration has argued to the nation’s top court. 

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), who successfully challenged the law’s requirement for individuals to purchase insurance by 2014, had asked the Supreme Court to let the administration’s appeal skip over appeals court and go directly to the high court.

Noting that the so-called individual mandate does not go into effect until 2014, Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said the courts are in no rush to make their decision.

“There will be ample time before 2014 for this court to decide whether to grant review in the normal course and, if it does so, to issue a decision,” Katyal wrote for the administration in a late Monday filing.

The administration further argued that the expedited schedules for several appeals may land several reform law challenges in the Supreme Court by the October term. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which would hear Virginia’s challenge and another from Liberty University, “is among the fastest court of appeals,” Katyal wrote.

To date, three federal judges have upheld the healthcare law, while two have struck it down. Citing widespread confusion as the result of conflicting decisions, some have called for an expedited legal review of the law.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals recently announced it will expedite a lawsuit from 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business. A federal judge ruling in their favor struck down the entire law in January, but he recently said the law's implementation can proceed.

Opening briefs in the 11th Circuit are due by early May.