In the days leading up to the healthcare ruling, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is playing coy. At a conference this evening, she hinted at the contentious debate over the decision, but refused to give a hint at which way the Justices have swung. She also laughed at the supposed experts peddling their predictions to the media:
“Those who know don’t talk. And those who talk don’t know,” she quipped Friday night at a conference hosted by the American Constitution Society at the Capital Hilton.
Ginsburg said she was responding to a "steady stream of rumors and fifth-hand accounts" about the court's deliberations on the law.
Careful not to tip her hand on the court’s ruling — expected in the next two weeks — Ginsburg described the oral arguments in the case as unprecedented for the number of “press conferences, prayer circles, protests and counterprotests” that occurred on the courthouse steps.
Although she offered no insight into the tightly held decisions of her colleagues, Ginsburg did indicate that many of the court’s decisions over the next two weeks — which are also expected to include an FCC indecency ruling — might be close.
The 21 remaining decisions, she said, were “many of the most controversial cases” that the court reviewed this term.
“It is likely that the sharp disagreement rate will go up next week and the week after,” she said.
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It's likely they'll wait until the last week of session -- beginning June 25th -- for the ruling. In addition however, they've already begun adding extra days to hand down the many decisions that remain, with Arizona's SB1070 immigration law among them. It's bound to be an interesting two weeks in the legal world!
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