Timing For Supreme Court’s Health Law Review Unclear

The Wall Street Journal reports that the high court is likely to decide by January whether a ruling on the health law will come before or after the 2012 election. Meanwhile, Politico reports that a "conservative gadfly" has won a round in his battle against the Obama administration's health overhaul effort.

The Wall Street Journal: Election Looms In Health-Law Review
The Supreme Court is likely to decide by January whether a ruling on the constitutionality of the Obama administration's health law will come before or after the November 2012 election. What isn't certain is whether a high court decision would come before the end of its 2011-12 term next June. If the justices agree by January to hear an appeal, arguments likely will occur in March or April, with a decision before July. Under normal practice, any case accepted after January gets kicked into the next term. That would mean the resolution would come after voters decide whether President Barack Obama, the health care overhaul's champion, deserves a second term (Bravin, 8/17).

Politico: Larry Klayman Wins Round Against Obama Health Reform Panel
Larry Klayman - the conservative gadfly and attorney whose prolific lawsuits made him the bane of the Clinton administration - just won a round in court against the Obama administration's health care reform effort. Klayman and a new legal group he founded, Freedom Watch, filed suit in 2009 against President Barack Obama and what Klayman called the "Obama Health Reform De Facto Advisory Committee." The suit alleges that as the administration pressed for passage of health care reform legislation, White House officials set up a panel of lobbyists from the pharmaceutical industry, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AARP, the American Medical Association and others to build support for the measure (Gerstein, 8/16).

Meanwhile, in the court of public opinion -

HealthyCal: Low-income Californians Fear Health Reform Won't Deliver For Them
As President Barack Obama struggles to implement - and defend - the health care reform he signed last year, he is finding that the public does not understand how the program is supposed to work, and based on what they do know, many voters doubt the overhaul will help them in the end. It turns out this is true not only for middle class voters who already have insurance but, at least in California, also for low-income, uninsured people for whom the new law holds the most promise. Many of them are confused about the law's details and fear it could make their ability to access care, often portrayed as desperate, even worse (van Diepen, 8/16).