The United States Supreme Court accepts for review and consideration only about 1% of the cases brought to its attention. 99 out of every 100 cases brought on petition to the U.S. Supreme Court are rejected without comment.

Moreover, many of the cases that are accepted by the High Court for review are obscure to most of the public, such as an arcane bankruptcy issue or a border dispute between states or a matter of prisoners' rights. In high profile areas like abortion, the Supreme Court has not decided a major issue in more than five years.

Ever since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) was enacted in March 2010, there has been much speculation about if and when the U.S. Supreme Court might review that law. At midnight on September 26, the answer finally became clear: the U.S. Supreme Court will almost certainly consider and address whether ObamaCare is constitutional.

Most appellate courts have ruled in favor of ObamaCare, but a brilliant 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit struck down the central component of the law: the mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance. The Eleventh Circuit held that Americans cannot be forced to "enter into contracts with private insurance companies for the purchase of an expensive product from the time they are born until the time they die." Florida v. United States HHS, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 16806 (11th Cir. Aug. 12, 2011).

The Obama Administration had until September 26 to petition for a rehearing en banc by all the active members of the Eleventh Circuit to reconsider that decision, but that deadline came and went.

As a result, the central part of ObamaCare is unconstitutional in the 26 states which joined that lawsuit. It is inconceivable that the U.S. Supreme Court would leave ObamaCare unconstitutional in 26 states, but in effect in the other 24 states.

So it is no longer a question of "if" the Supreme Court will take and review the constitutionality of ObamaCare, but "when." That answer became clear a few days later, when the Obama Administration itself petitioned the Supreme Court for review of the Eleventh Circuit decision. The other parties in that case also requested review by the Supreme Court, making it unanimous.

Briefing is likely to be completed in this fall, and oral argument will probably be in early 2012. A decision is expected around the end of June 2012, less than four months before early voting begins for the presidential election. This may be the biggest Supreme Court decision to be rendered within months of a presidential election in American history.