I don't think any of the lower District courts will be able to do much w/this issue other than write their desenting views on the matter and "pass it on" to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Reps will try everything in the book to strike down health care reform legistlation in whole or in part. But this is what kills me about the Republican Party where this issue is concerned.
They've known for years that aspects of the health care system needed to be revised. They've known since Medicare, Part-D was implimented that it wasn't funded AND that there has been waste within the Medicare system. They've acknowledged since as far back as the Clinton Administration that there were problems within the nation's health care system. And as we all know Republicans have made very similar acknowledgements during the course of the various Town Hall meetings and debates on this very sensative issue during the current administration. Yet, they've done nothing about it; such was never made part of the Republican (President) agenda ('least not known publically). And why not? Why didn't they take up this agenda item under G. W. Bush instead of using the exact same tactics now as used under the Clinton Administration to eventually bring the legality of certain aspects of health care reform legistlation before the judiciary? Knowing that this was an important issue, why didn't they work closer with Democrats and the Obama Administration to make the health care system work better so that there wouldn't be a need to place this issue before the judiciary?
Congressional Republicans claim tried very hard to "work" with their Democrat counterparts to bring about fair health care reform legistlation but the Democrats wouldn't accept their proposals, but as many have observed that's just not true. Many items the Republicans have recommended have been incorporated in health care legistlation, i.e., removal of the public option and the additional branch of government that would have run it, giving more control and oversight to the States to establish their own Health Insurance Exchanges and High Risk Pools, making it clear that no government funds would go to illegal aliens or to fund abortions, etc., etc.
There have been concessions made on both sides of the political isle, but when it came down to getting votes across partisian lines, it was always the Democrats who were ready to put the People's interest above political gains, whereas it appears to me that Republicans were more concerned with either protecting their own Congressional seats or protecting the private industry (insurance companies, hospitals and other special interest groups, i.e., doctors) rather than doing what was in the best interest of the People. To put it another way, Republicans have done more to look out for themselves than to do their job which, IMO, is to look out for the People. And sometimes, that means putting what's best for the country ahead of your own interest or those of a specific voting block. Even now they're talking about
choking off funds for various aspects of health care reform just so people who truly need health care might not get it.
Congressional Republicans knew people were suffering or going bankrupt over every rising medical cost, yet they didn't do anything about it. They knew there were loopholes in the Medicare system, yet they did nothing about it. They knew people were being "cheated" or "denied" health coverage for small, insignificant things, yet they did nothing about it.
I may not totally agree with everything in the health care legistlation, but at least one side of the political spectrum was willing to try and fix the problems within the health care system, and that's far more than I can say about Congressional Republicans who would rather just leave things as they were.