Legal Challenges

Lawmakers and interest groups are ready to respond as soon as the decision is released.

The majority leader said there was a "consensus" in favor of repealing the law if the justices upheld any provisions.

We at least know when the Supreme Court will hand down its historic healthcare decision: Chief Justice John Roberts announced that all remaining cases will be decided Thursday, giving the healthcare world another 72 hours to prepare.

That preparation is a massive undertaking: stakeholder groups have multiple statements ready to go, hoping to cover all the bases in a case that has myriad possible outcomes.

Lawmakers are in a stressful and unfamiliar predicament over the healthcare ruling. It’s a momentous political event, but lawmakers and strategists can’t do anything to control or even predict the outcome. All they can do is hope and wait. Be sure to read our story on the nervous anticipation leading up to the historic decision.

Process: It’s not unusual for the court to push big decisions to the last day of its term. But what, exactly, is going on with the healthcare ruling? It’s probably being proofread and printed, according to National Journal.

“Everyone is working incredibly hard and long hours to get it polished and ready for prime time," Kevin Walsh, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told the magazine.

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Several key swing states would be hit especially hard if the Supreme Court strikes down President Obama's healthcare reform law, according to new data from Avalere Health.

If the court throws out the entire law, about 22.4 million people who would have gotten access to insurance coverage will remain uninsured, Avalere said. About 15 million people who would have been eligible for Medicaid would instead remain uninsured, as would roughly 7.5 million people who would have gotten subsidies to help pay for private insurance.

Avalere also mapped how many people would remain uninsured in each state, and the biggest impacts would be felt in several key battlegrounds.

Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Michigan would each see more than 500,000 people lose access to Medicaid or subsidized private insurance.

“It will make the process of providing healthcare for the American people even more difficult,” said Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.).

Legal insiders believe the court will strike down all or part of Obama's healthcare law.

In a letter to the court, the senators write that broadcasting the decision would "bolster public confidence" in the judiciary.

The Supreme Court’s landmark healthcare ruling is just days away. More than 10,000 users tuned in for live updates Monday morning at SCOTUSblog but, as expected, the court didn’t release its highly anticipated healthcare ruling. The next possibility is Thursday, though the odds still seem to favor a ruling next week.

As the decision nears, focus is turning once again to the important issue of severability — whether the healthcare reform law’s individual mandate would have to take the whole law down with it, if it’s found to be unconstitutional. The justices can do just about anything they want on the severability question: strike down the whole law; strike out only the mandate; or strike the mandate and certain other provisions.

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The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling within the next two weeks on President Obama’s healthcare law.

The Supreme Court is prepared to handle any protests that arise after the decision on Obama’s healthcare law.