Health-care reforms go to high court

September 29, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration on Wednesday formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review its health care law, a move that’s likely to set up a blockbuster election-year decision.

On the heels of an appellate court defeat, the Justice Department late Wednesday afternoon filed the 34-page petition urging the court to uphold the law’s ambitious mandates.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta last month struck down the so-called individual mandate.

“The department has consistently and successfully defended this law in several court of appeals, and only the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled it unconstitutional,” the Justice Department said in a written statement. “We believe the question is appropriate for review by the Supreme Court.”

Opponents of the health care law want the court to act, too.

Earlier Wednesday, the National Federation of Independent Business filed a competing petition urging the Supreme Court to take up the case so it could strike down the law. Separately, 26 states filed their own petition Wednesday challenging the law’s constitutionality.

“This case offers this court an ideal vehicle to resolve pressing and persistent constitutional questions arising out of the law,” former Bush administration solicitor general Paul Clement wrote on behalf of the 26 states.

Clement had successfully argued at the appellate court level against what’s formally called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which opponents deride as “Obamacare.”