Supreme Court Set to Rule on Health Care, Ariz. Immigration Law

(Newsroom America) -- The nation's highest court has a busy week ahead as it prepares to hand down its final half-dozen rulings for the year, including much anticipated and controversial decisions regarding the fate of President Obama's healthcare reform law and the state of Arizona's stiff immigration statute.

So far this session, the administration has been on the losing end in a string of rulings - "as obscure as the federal government’s relationships with Indian tribes and as significant as enforcement of the Clean Water Act," the Washington Post reported, noting that in some cases, negative rulings were accompanied by "biting commentary" from justices.

But without question, the most-anticipated decision is the fate of Obama's signature accomplishment, the passage of the Affordable Care Act, nicknamed "Obamacare" by political opponents, which has been panned by conservatives and a majority of states as unconstitutional for its provision requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance.

That lone provision could be struck from the law by the high court, or justices could toss it in its entirety and instruct Congress to re-craft the legislation sans the provision. Analysts seem to be mixed on the question.

That said, the health care ruling could come as soon as Monday, but it's almost certain justices will announce it by Thursday, according to most reports.

In a unique survey of former Supreme Court law clerks, the Post said most of the 56 ex-clerks surveyed (57 percent) believe at least the individual mandate will be overturned, a 22-percent jump from the last time the clerks were polled.

"Most of the clerks found the Supreme Court’s questioning to be more skeptical than they had expected," the paper reported. "As one clerk put it to Purple Strategies’ Doug Usher, who conducted the research, 'I feel like a dope, because I was one of those who predicted that the Court would uphold the statute by a lopsided majority…it now appears pretty likely that this prediction was way off.'"

Most polls taken before and after the health care law was passed show a majority of Americans oppose it.

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