The fight over President Obama’s health care law may be coming back to the Supreme Court as the Justices suggest they may be interested in revisiting a case that will raise many of the same challenges that came before the Court this past spring.
Fox News is reporting that the case in question involves Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia that has been fighting the employer mandate in ObamaCare ever since the law was enacted. Their suit went as far as the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals which refused to hear it, saying the case was barred because of the Anti-Injunction Act which blocks any challenge to a “tax” before a taxpayer actually has to pay it.
However, part of the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling in June was a finding that the Anti-Injunction Act does not serve as a barrier to lawsuits challenging the health care law. On that basis, Liberty University immediately petitioned the court to allow it to renew its original case.
On Monday of this week, the Supreme Court noted the university’s renewed request and gave the Obama administration 30 days to respond, which suggests that the justices are considering taking on Liberty’s case.
“I think they’ve got very good arguments that they’re entitled to their day in court,” says former senior Justice Department official Thomas Dupree Jr.
Dupree, an attorney and well-respected court-watcher, told Fox he believes the government will have a tough time shutting down Liberty’s petition. If it is granted, the case would return to the 4th Circuit, putting it on the fast track back to the Supreme Court.
“Who knows, we might be back here in a year, arguing about the next great Supreme Court health care decision,” Dupree speculated.
Mat Staver, lead attorney for Liberty, called Monday’s news “a very positive development” and says he is now planning to renew a number of challenges to the health care law, including arguments related to freedom of religious expression and religious objections to abortion.
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