Covington’s Long Argues Historic Health Care Case Before U.S. Supreme Court

Covington’s Long Argues Historic Health Care Case Before U.S. Supreme Court

March 26, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC, March 26, 2012— The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument today from Robert Long, a partner at Covington & Burling LLP, about a key aspect of the historic health care law.

At the high court’s request, Mr. Long argued the position that constitutional challenges to the health care law should not be allowed to proceed at this time because of an 1867 federal statute called the Anti-Injunction Act. The federal health care law requires all Americans to have health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty. The Anti-Injunction Act states that taxes cannot be challenged in court until they have been collected.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order on November 18, 2011, appointing Mr. Long to brief and argue the Anti-Injunction Act issue.

Mr. Long chairs the firm’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice and has argued 17 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. From 1990 to 1993, he served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States.