While the U.S. Supreme Court set aside 90 minutes for argument on the first day of its review of the Obama health reform law, it did not seem like there was an appetite among the Justices to side step the essential question of the constitutionality of the law itself.
Instead, the Justices started skirmishing in advance of what will be the main event on Tuesday, when the Supreme Court takes two hours to review the individual mandate.
Here is my immediate review just moments after I left the Supreme Court.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid774331384001?bctid=1530859898001
Quickly reviewing my many pages of notes from the courtroom, there were a number of interesting moments which really seemed to foreshadow the legal jockeying tomorrow.
Justice Stephen Breyer for example repeatedly made the case that the tax penalty for not getting health insurance - the individual mandate - was not a tax, but instead should be viewed as a penalty.
