Dueling megaphones on the US Supreme Court steps drowned out the official announcement of the court's ruling on President Barack Obama's key health care reforms Thursday. It was just another sign of how the health care law has ignited passionate controversy among both opponents and supporters.
The crowd of several hundred gathered on the steps was colourful, passionate and, above all, loud. Roughly equal numbers of supporters and opponents came to the court to await the result from nine justices - which ultimately turned out to be 5-4 to uphold the law's key provision requiring most Americans to purchase health insurance or face a penalty.
Doctors in their white coats stood feet away from a protester dressed as the Grim Reaper. Every so often the voice coming through one megaphone became clear for several seconds, but was quickly drowned out as another speaker turned the volume up on his own device. When the crowd finally learned the justices' ruling, the reaction was swift and unanimous from the law's opponents.
"We burn the thing. We vote it out. We vote Obama out. They just wakened the sleeping giant," said William Temple, a retired 62-year-old who worked for over 30 years in the federal government and stood sweating on the steps in colonial garb.
His sentiment was echoed by Republicans in Congress and presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who vowed to repeal the measure. At 10 am sharp (1400 GMT), when the ruling was scheduled to be released, confusion took hold. Opponents of the law began cheering, waving their flags and chanting "The Constitution stands," as initial media reports indicated the law had been struck down.
Then phones began buzzing, calls were made, websites checked, and those who were silenced by the false claims of repeal found their voices again as it became clear that the decision actually upheld the law. A new chant of "Health care for all" swept across the crowd.
The battle for the loudest megaphone began again, and was joined by speakers at podiums set up on the steps. "I feel like this is just the first step of keeping the health care bill alive," said Brittnee Hawkins, a 24-year-old graduate student from the University of Michigan interning in Washington for the summer. "It's definitely going to play a big part in the election of 2012 and that's why students need to educate themselves about the health care law because of this bill I'm going to have health care and not going to be dropped (from her parents' health coverage)," Hawkins said.
She stood several feet back from a circle of people cheering Republican Congressman Phil Gingrey, who said he was ready to call for the impeachment of Chief Justice John Roberts, who sided with the court's liberal wing as the deciding vote and wrote the decision. Packed into a tight group of angry opponents, Arkady Faktorovich was one of the few people not holding a sign or waving a flag. The 65-year-old building designer from California fled the Soviet Union before its fall to come to the US. "This is a sad day, because I was running away from tyranny and single-payer government," Faktorovich said. "I never thought it would catch up with me here, on this day, the 28th of June. Insanity. I lost all respect for those people in black robes."
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