Nelson Wants High Court to Hurry on Healthcare Law

A Democratic senator wants the Supreme Court to hurry up and decide whether the national healthcare law is constitutional, the Washington Wire blog of the Wall Street Journal reports.

Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida introduced a bill on Tuesday to move the case to the top of the high court’s docket and quickly resolve lower-court rulings that disagree about the legality of mandatory insurance coverage.

Sen. Bill Nelson

Nelson said in a statement he wants a decision sooner than later “so we don’t keep arguing over this for the next several years.”

Nelson also faces a potentially tough re-election fight next year in a state where fresh polling shows half of Floridians want the healthcare overhaul repealed. He supported the law last year and again this week in what he called a “largely symbolic” re-vote.

The Supreme Court’s standard for accepting an expedited hearing is “a showing that the case is of such imperative public importance as to justify ... immediate determination in this court.”