Wednesday round-up

By Adam Chandler
on Feb 2, 2011 at 9:22 am

Two days after a federal judge in Florida declared President Obama’s signature health care initiative unconstitutional, discussion of how the Court might rule on the issue – and how soon – continues.

USA Today’s David Jackson echoes the sentiments expressed by some reporters and commentators to whom Nabiha linked in yesterday’s round-up, writing that “the fate of Obama’s signature domestic program may well boil down to a single person: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.” Newsweek’s Ben Adler agrees with Jackson’s conclusion, but Reason’s Damon Root is less certain about the premise of that argument:  “that all four conservatives will vote against the individual mandate.” For Root, “Roberts is the real question.”

On the “how soon” question, the Wall Street Journal (along with the WSJ Law Blog) reports that the twenty-six states that won the Florida lawsuit are “now weighing whether to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case before it has been fully litigated in the lower courts.” SCOTUSblog’s Lyle Denniston reports that the Justice Department has announced its plans to appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, but either party can ask the Court to take the case before the Eleventh Circuit has completed its review. The Journal notes that the Court has granted early review in only two cases in the last decade, and the Law Blog calls the move a “longshot.” Meanwhile, Howard Wasserman at PrawfsBlawg ponders why Congress didn’t create a more direct path to the Supreme Court in the first place, “through a three-judge district court, with automatic review to [the Supreme Court].”

Briefly:

• The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Maroon, the Associated Press (via the Los Angeles Times), and the WSJ Law Blog all report on Justice Sotomayor’s appearance at the University of Chicago on Monday. Yesterday’s round-up included a New York Times story on the visit, as well. (Thanks to Howard Bashman of How Appealing for today’s links.)