(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Today a Federal judge in Virginia ruled that the mandate for individuals to buy health care insurance from privet companies or face a penalty by the IRS is unconstitutional. This could unravel the insurance give away bill if it stands. Two other judges have rules that the bill is constitutional as it wends its way to the Supreme Court.
A federal district judge in Virginia ruled on Monday that the keystone provision in the Obama health care law is unconstitutional, becoming the first court in the country to invalidate any part of the sprawling act and ensuring that appellate courts will receive contradictory opinions from below.
Judge Henry E. Hudson, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, declined the plaintiff’s request to freeze implementation of the law pending appeal, meaning that there should be no immediate effect on the ongoing rollout of the law. But the ruling is likely to create confusion among the public and further destabilize political support for legislation that is under fierce attack from Republicans in Congress and in many statehouses.
In a 42-page opinion issued in Richmond, Va., Judge Hudson wrote that the law’s central requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance exceeds the regulatory authority granted to Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The insurance mandate is central to the law’s mission of covering more than 30 million uninsured because insurers argue that only by requiring healthy people to have policies can they afford to treat those with expensive chronic conditions.
The link to Judge Hudson’s ruling is here
2 comments
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No Mandate!
I actually think this is a good ruling even if it means Obama has ZERO accomplishments.
Oh wait, he already does.