Legal Challenges

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called for dismantling President Obama’s sweeping healthcare law.

House Republicans on Thursday voted to eliminate language in their own healthcare reform bill that said the U.S. healthcare industry affects interstate commerce, which Republicans feared could undermine their argument that the Democrats' 2010 healthcare law abused the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

Democrats have argued that the Commerce Clause lets Congress regulate interstate commerce, which allows Congress to mandate that all Americans buy health insurance. Republicans have rejected that interpretation by saying the Commerce Clause cannot require people to enter the marketplace, in this case by purchasing health insurance. That argument will be tested in the Supreme Court in hearings that begin next week.

The frenzy surrounding the healthcare reform law hearing is likely to dwarf anything the court has ever seen.

Strong majorities see major White House policies making life more difficult for themselves, according to this week’s Hill Poll.

The Supreme Court will not allow cameras in its chambers for debate on the Obama healthcare law.

Washington's power players are working every angle for a seat in the Supreme Court to see oral arguments in the healthcare challenge, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Catholic bishops pressured the Komen Foundation to stop funding Planned Parenthood, Reuters reports.

The Department of Health and Human Services formally stopped funding Texas's Medicaid program for low-income women because the state banned Planned Parenthood from participating, Kaiser Health News reports.

One of Virginia's best-ranked dentists could go to prison for 20 years for allegedly distributing painkillers, The Washington Post reports.

Wealthy families increasingly are paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for high-end medical services — known as "concierge care" — that aren't covered by insurance, Bloomberg reports.

The health law challenge will mark Chief Justice John Roberts's legacy, The New York Times writes.

The Washington Post profiles the plaintiff states' lawyer, Paul Clement.

Long before the healthcare case, Clement had become the go-to lawyer for Republicans, writes Bloomberg.

Venture capitalists are shifting their attention to businesses that keep patients and costs low in the wake of the healthcare reform law, reports KQED.

Mary Brown's $4,500 in unpaid medical bills could help the Obama administration make the case for the insurance mandate.

The legislation has stalled as leaders weigh the wisdom of telling the judicial branch how to do its business.

Judge Ronald B. Leighton said the state rules were designed "to force religious objectors to dispense Plan B."