Virginia to Supreme Court: Decide Health Care Now
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has announced he's asking the Supreme Court to step in now and decide the constitutionality of health care reform--instead of waiting for the case run its normal course through the federal appeals court.
"Currently, state governments and private businesses are being forced to expend enormous amounts of resources to prepare to implement a law that, in the end, may be declared unconstitutional," he said in a statement. "Regardless of whether you believe the law is constitutional or not, we should all agree that a prompt resolution of this issue is in everyone's best interest."
Not to go out on a limb here, but I would rank the odds of success on this petition as, oh, zero. This is a highly unusual request, and the Court doesn't like highly unusual requests. It typically sticks to its traditions, which in this case would mean letting appeals run their course.
There are practical reasons for doing so: letting this case play out gives the justices the benefit of more opinions/dissents from the appellate courts as they weigh different sides of the issue.
Moreover, Cuccinelli is asking the Court to expedite a case he WON, not to block a ruling against him. If the Court were inclined to step into the case now, and there is no reason to think it is, the justices would be more likely to act on an appeal from DOJ in the Florida case--where the judge threw out the entire law.
But there is no motion for expedited review from DOJ in the Florida case. And in Virginia, DOJ pointedly refused to join Cuccinelli in asking the Supreme Court to jump in and skip the appeals courts, saying in a statement today that it's better to let the case proceed the normal way.
So why the rush from Cuccinelli?
Wait. A. Minute. Surely he's not trying to get the Court to take HIS case instead of the Florida case, so the landmark decision for the law books will be his litigation, not the group effort from Florida?
Nah. Surely not.
