Virginia asks high court to expedite review of health law challenge

Virginia's attorney general has hopes to bypass an initial appellate court review and take his state's case against the health overhaul directly to the Supreme Court. The federal Department of Justice has made clear it will oppose this request. Meanwhile, the lawsuits against the health law are just one of many paths being followed by activists who hope to undo the measure.

The Washington Post: Virginia To Seek Expedited Supreme Court Review Of Suit Over Health Care Law
Virginia will ask that the U.S. Supreme Court immediately review the state's constitutional challenge to the federal health-care overhaul, a rare legal request to bypass appeals and ask for early intervention from the nation's highest court, Attorney General Ken T. Cuccinelli II said Thursday (Helderman, 2/3).

The New York Times: Virginia To Ask Supreme Court To Rule On Health Law
Virginia's attorney general announced on Thursday that he hoped to bypass an initial appellate review by asking the United States Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of the Obama health care law on an expedited basis (Sack, 2/3).

Fox News: Virginia Attorney General Urges Supreme Court To Hear Health Law Challenge Now
Virginia's attorney general has asked the Supreme Court to fast-track his state's legal challenge to the federal health care overhaul, saying state governments and businesses deserve to know the fate of the law as soon as possible (2/3).

Reuters: Virginia To Ask Top Court To Review US Health Law
Virginia said on Thursday it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its challenge to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, bypassing the appeals process in a rarely used move to try to speed up a definitive ruling on the year-old law. The Obama administration opposed the move and said the case should follow the regular process, which could put off until 2012 a Supreme Court ruling on the sweeping law that aims to provide more than 30 million uninsured Americans with medical coverage and cracks down on unpopular insurance industry practices (Vicini and Lambert, 1/3).

Bloomberg: Obama Go-Slow Approach At Supreme Court On Health Law May Build Support
A U.S. Supreme Court showdown over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul may be inevitable. His administration is in no rush for the court to get involved. The Justice Department yesterday said it will oppose Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's request that the court immediately review the law, which a federal trial judge said was unconstitutional. ... The government's approach would give it a chance to rack up lower court victories and perhaps build popular support for the law before the justices take up the case. It might also set the stage for a Supreme Court ruling only months before the 2012 presidential election (Stohr and Blum, 1/4).

The Wall Street Journal: Health Foes Try Divergent Tactics
States challenging the massive health care law enacted last year are employing different tactics in their push for swift Supreme Court review of their legal cases (Kendall, 2/4).

The Washington Post: Activists Slowly Chip Away At Health Care Law
The effort to block, repeal or merely chip away at the health care law has exploded into a single-minded political industry since Congress and state legislatures across the nation began convening last month. Twenty-eight states have filed or signed onto lawsuits challenging the measure. Thirty-eight legislatures are considering state laws to curtail its effects. Operatives and organizers are spraying their membership lists with action alerts and calls to arms. And an army of activists is writing e-mails and making phone calls to urge state and federal lawmakers to take the measure down (Gardner, 2/3).