FOXNews.com: Supreme Court signals health care case won't be held up over technicality

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Supreme Court signals health care case won't be held up over technicality Mar 26th 2012, 16:09 Supreme Court justices signaled Monday that the landmark case over the federal health care law would probably not be held up over a technicality.  That technicality was the focus of the opening round of hearings Monday. The issue before the judges was whether an obscure 1867 tax law prohibits lawsuits, like the ones challenging the health care law, from going forward until someone actually pays the insurance tax penalty -- the penalty for not buying health insurance, as required under the law.  If the justices decided the 1867 law applies here, opponents might have to wait until early 2015, when the IRS collects its first payments from uninsured taxpayers, to formally challenge the law.  But all parties in this case happen to agree, albeit for different reasons, that the law doesn't preclude the justices from moving forward.  And the justices appeared to be on the same page, as the first day of hearings wrapped up Monday around noon.  The justices disputed the notion that the insurance penalty is tantamount to a tax and therefore subject to that 1867 law.  "This is not attached to a tax," Justice Stephen Breyer said.  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who like Breyer is considered to side on the liberal end of the bench, also said the law "is not a revenue-raising measure."  "If it's successful, there's no revenue to raise," she said.  The justices heard arguments as demonstrators from both sides gathered outside the courthouse in Washington, D.C.  The second day of hearings on Tuesday will be devoted to the most prominent dispute over the health care law -- whether it is constitutional for the federal government to require Americans to buy health insurance. Click here for full coverage of the ObamaCare hearings.  Fox News' Lee Ross contributed to this report.

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