Breaking news isn't often my concern here, but this is big/bigger/biggest stuff:
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's health- care overhaul in a clash that will shape the 2012 election and spell out the extent of the federal government's power.
The justices today said they will consider whether Congress exceeded its authority by requiring all Americans to either acquire insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty.
The court will wield unprecedented influence over the presidential election campaign, with a decision in the case likely in late June, months before the election. The eventual ruling may define Chief Justice John Roberts' court, either as an aggressive enforcer of the constitutional constraints on Congress or as a nonpolitical body inclined to defer to the elected branches on policy questions.
BIG: How the ruling, just four or five months before the election, will affect the presidential race. The pundits will be busy for weeks now trying to figure out if Obamacare going down or being reaffirmed is good or bad for Obama's re-elections chanches or will add to or subtract from GOP propspects. This will be both the most tedious and most plentiful commentary.
BIGGER: How much of health care the government will control. It's already in for more than 50 percent, and the progressive politicians certainly want it to be 100. This ruling will determine in part how gargantuan our already monstrous government is going to be before everything crashes and burns.
BIGGEST: Whether the government reaally can do anything it damn well pleases or whether there any constitutional retrainsts whatsoever on powet. This might be a defining moment for the age.
