The State of those Tea Party ACA Lawsuits

It's been awhile since we've heard anything about the lawsuits seeking to overturn the mandate component of the Affordable Care Act.  Well, it popped up again yesterday with a request from the 4th Circuit panel on the ACA for briefs on some very specific cases based on the Anti-Injunction Act and some very interesting questions.  The Anti-Injunction Act states

no suit for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of any tax shall be maintained in any court by any person, whether or not such person is the person against whom such tax was assessed.

So the question at hand, and the one asked by the court is, does the mandate in the ACA constitute a tax?

So we'll hear more this summer about these Tea Party / GOP lawsuits to prevent Americans from getting affordable health insurance.