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"FacebookPinterest\n\nIt's 9:30 am and a dozen abortion opponents are kneeling in prayer on the sunbaked concrete outside the Supreme Court. They are holding black picket signs that say \"Defund Planned Parenthood.\" Sixteen photographers crouch around them to snap photos. \"Just like the abolitionists who fought so hard to abolish slavery...\" their prayer leader says. Beside them, five single payer activists are brandishing large, blue \"Medicare for All\" poster boards. The cameras are ignoring them, until they tie on faux surgical masks reading \"Silent Majority,\" to their faces. The photographers rush over to take photos.\n\nIt's Monday morning, and no one\u2014save the Supreme Court justices and their three dozen clerks\u2014knows whether the court will issue the most important decision of the Obama era today. \"We've been on Defcon 2 for about a week now. We've got the jets scrambled. We can get them anywhere in the world in 20 minutes\" says one of the health care reporters tracking the bill obsessively for a beltway paper. \"We have no idea what could happen, but we're prepared for every contingency. We've pre-written every story with every possible outcome.\" Many news organizations in Washington are similarly prepped. So until the court decides, there's not much to do but stand around and wait.\n\n\"Everyone here is media,\" an Australian tourist cracks as he surveys the scene. He's mostly right. There are the dozen pro-lifers, the half-dozen single payer supporters. Soon after they're joined by a small but noisy contingent of tea partiers, led by a Linda Dorr, a breast cancer survivor from Laguna Beach in a tie-dyed bandana holding a giant sign that says \"Obamacare rations breast cancer detection,\" and a smaller one that says \"Uncle Sam! Keep Your Mitts Off our T\u2014s!!!\" But mostly, the assembled crowd is made up of media crews. A long line of them are set up on the right side of the court, cameras ready, umbrellas perched to shield news anchors from the sun, waiting quietly as the dozens of activists sing and chant and shout into bullhorns beside them. Notably absent: a noisy coterie of Affordable Care Act proponents, who made a big show during the oral arguments for the health care law. There might be a reason for this: Bloomberg wrote today that though 19 of the 21 constitutional law professors they interviewed thought the Supreme Court should uphold the mandate if they're following precedent, only eight expected they would. Or maybe they're just waiting for Thursday. Still, there's a palpable sense of unease among the Affordable Care Act's supporters in Washington, and something surreal about standing around with no real indication of which way it's going to go, because no one inside that building ever, ever leaks anything\u2014just idly waiting for nine people to determine the fate of millions of the uninsured. Suddenly it seems like the Supreme Court is casting a shadow over all of Washington.\n\nFinally, at 10:18, a man with a grey beard and a grey suit comes rushing down the steps of the court towards the cameras. The rowdy group goes quiet as it rushes over to the cameras. But he doesn't make an announcement. Instead, the crowd listens as a news anchor reports that the SCOTUS has upheld the provision of Arizona's immigration bill that requires law enforcement to check the immigration status of people they suspect are illegal immigrants. An elderly woman in a bucket hat raises her frail fists in triumph. But other shoulders slump. \"No health care announcement today,\" someone mutters.\n\nThe crowd is thinning out. Michele Bachmann, who prepped a news conference for the day, cancels. Utah Senator Mike Lee, a tea party star and former clerk for Justice Samuel Alito, comes down the stairs and gives analysis of the Arizona case for Fox News. Someone asks if he'll come back Thursday, when the court will finally announce their decision. \"I'll be there with bells on,\" Lee says. \"Though I don't know if they'll allow bells in the courtroom.\"\n\nRead more on Death Race 2012:\n\n[Hunger Reads: SCOTUS Reporting and Governor Cuomo's Sophomore Slump\n\n](http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race#ixzz1ypJeJ4pS)\n\n[Supreme Court Watch: The Nation Gathers Round the News-Ticker\n\n](http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race#ixzz1ypJmJs1s)\n\n[Five Fox News Magazine Articles That Changed My Life\n\n](http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race#ixzz1ypJscUya)\n\n[Today's Political Firestorm: Romney Indirectly Responsible for Outsourcing\n\n](http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race#ixzz1ypJyy7Ul)\n\nFollow Marin Cogan on Twitter for more updates from the campaign trail.\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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