This summer, the Supreme Court is set to rule on the constitutionality of a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires individuals to buy health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Tuesday, the Supreme Court increased the time for next month’s oral arguments from 5.5 hours to six hours, allowing an extra half hour to discuss the Tax Anti-Injunction Act, a law that says courts may not halt a tax that isn’t yet being collected.
Last fall, the Fourth Circuit of Appeals scrapped a lawsuit against the individual mandate based on TAIA because most courts say the statue doesn’t apply in this case, but with the Supreme Court now setting aside the extra time to hear arguments on the act, court watchers speculate this may mean the Supreme Court will delay the ruling until 2014, when the individual mandate goes into effect.
