By Tony Mauro

…Though it was a practical solution, the stay in Northern Pipeline seemed contradictory at the time—allowing an unconstitutional system to persist, even for a few months. King v. Burwell is a statutory, not a constitutional case. If the court rules against the administration and then stays its decision, the ruling could raise constitutional and practical concerns, according to Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel of the Constitutional Accountability Center, who filed a brief in the case on behalf of legislators supporting the Obama administration. 

“Even if the court took the extremely unusual step of delaying the effect of its ruling and sidestepped the constitutional concerns about continuing to permit money to flow out of the Treasury when the congressional authorization for that outlay has been invalidated,” Wydra said, “there is no guarantee that the political process would work to restore the tax credits.“….