The Supreme Court likely will decide whether the Obama administration\u2019s signature legislative accomplishment is unconstitutional within 48 hours. But aside from the nine justices and a handful of law clerks, none of us will know what that decision is until the summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the end of this week, the justices will likely know, their law clerks will know, and the rest of us have to wait until June,\u201d says Steven Engel, who clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy from 2000 to 2001.<\/p>\n
For the Supreme Court, this week\u2019s oral arguments were, in some ways, the easy part: The justices got to pepper the plaintiffs and defendants with questions about the law. Today, they start digging into a three-month process of writing up a decision on the Affordable Care Act\u2019s constitutionality.<\/p>\n
It starts with a conference on Friday, where the justices\u2014 and only the justices \u2014likely will discuss this week\u2019s oral arguments. At the end, they will vote \u2014 starting with the most senior member of the court, Chief Justice John Roberts, and ending with the most junior, Justice Elena Kagan \u2014 on the matter.<\/p>\n