Round one

So you didn’t get one of the approximately 170 seats in the Supreme Court for yesterday’s opening hearing on the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  Well, I didn’t either but I did get to talk to someone who was in the Chamber.

Elizabeth Wydra is the chief counsel for the Constitutional Accountability Center.  She practices before the Supreme Court and was seated in in the exclusive Well of the Court restricted to members of the Supreme Court bar. 

I talked with Ms. Wydra on my radio show yesterday afternoon.  You can hear her take on Monday’s proceeding here.  She’ll be back on my show today at 5:44 EST to give her timely assessment of the arguments on the constitutionality of the individual mandate and which side she thinks scored the best points. 

So what do Ms. Wydra’s fellow Supreme Court-practicing attorneys and former Supreme Court clerks think will be the final Court ruling?  A poll released yesterday showed that almost 75% agreed that the Court would make a ruling this year and not wait until 2015 (yesterday’ issue).  The good news for ACA supporters is that 65% thought that Supreme Court would uphold the constitutionality of the individual mandate and 81% said that the Medicaid expansion (Wednesday’s issue) would also be upheld. 

You can listen to my interview with Ms. Wydra live by clicking here.