Of the four federal appeals courts to rule, two upheld the law, one declared the mandate unconstitutional and the fourth said the Anti-Injunction Act made a judicial review premature.
The issues surrounding the mandate go to "the first principles of our constitutional experiment," said Rick Garnett, a constitutional law professor at Notre Dame Law School in South Bend, Indiana. "Even if the justices uphold the health-insurance mandate, look for them to remind us that the boundaries on federal regulatory authority remain, and matter."