Chasing Waterfalls, Tilting At Windmills

Virginia GOP AG Ken Cuccinelli's case against health care reform went before a judge yesterday, and a decision to let the case proceed or not will happen by the end of the month.

Arguing the case for Virginia, Solicitor General E. Duncan Getchell Jr. told a judge that it would be "unprecedented," "ahistorical" and "radical" for the federal government to require an individual to buy a private product -- in this case, health insurance.

In front of a packed courtroom -- with spectators overflowing into a second room and supporters of the federal law demonstrating outside -- attorneys for the Obama administration responded that the Virginia suit has no merit and should be tossed out of court. They said the law's mandate that Americans buy health insurance was well within Congress's constitutional power.

District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson said he will decide within 30 days whether to allow the case to proceed.

The hearing was the first skirmish in a legal war over the federal health-care overhaul that is not likely to be settled until it makes its way to the Supreme Court. 

So, we'll see how it goes and where, and that's yet another reason to pay careful attention to the Kagan hearings:  odds are extremely good that if confirmed she will be part of the decision the Supreme Court ultimately brings down on health care reform, perhaps as early as next year.