From sfgate.com: SCt healthcare case "...could end with a whimper rather than a bang"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/03/26/bloomberg_articlesM17C511A74E901-M1GUZ.DTL

Court Opens Health-Care Debate With Law That Might Derail Case

Greg Stohr, ©2012 Bloomberg News

Monday, March 26, 2012

"First, the justices today hear arguments on a seemingly arcane question: Does the penalty for failing to get insurance amount to a tax?

It's "the sleeper issue of the health-care case," said Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. "The great constitutional controversy over Obamacare could end with a whimper rather than a bang."

A 145-year-old law, the Anti-Injunction Act, says courts can't rule on the legality of federal taxes until they are imposed. For the no-insurance penalty in the 2010 health care law, which takes effect in stages, that comes in 2015. The justices may decide it's too soon rule on the health law's constitutionality."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/03/26/bloomberg_articlesM17C511A74E901-M1GUZ.DTL#ixzz1qEJmBXOD