Game On: Federal Judge KOs Obamacare
A federal judge in Virginia delivered a blow today to the Obama Administration’s new healthcare law, ruling that one of its major components – a requirement for people to purchase healthcare – is unconstitutional. This from FOX News:
Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Monday for the state’s claim that the requirement for people to purchase health care exceeds the power of Congress under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause or under the General Welfare Clause.
“It is not the effect on individuals that is presently at issue — it is the authority of Congress to compel anyone to purchase health insurance,” wrote Hudson, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush.
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Hudson’s eagerly awaited decision invalidates the requirement that all Americans purchase health insurance by 2014 or face a federal fine. Hudson’s decision is the first striking down part of the controversial legislation.
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In his ruling, Hudson wrote that he is severing that portion of the law, known as Section 1501, but is not granting an injunction against the entire law.
But Section 1501 is the portion of the law that collects most of the money that is supposed to flow into the system from millions of additional participants. Without it, the law’s execution could be severely compromised and could rock the foundation of other provisions in the legislation.
The lawsuit is just one of nearly two dozen challenges filed in federal courts across the country. Another high-profile suit filed in Florida and joined by 20 states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses will go before Judge Roger Vinson on Thursday.
The money quote from Hudson’s ruling: the “… enactment of the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision exceeds the Commerce Clause vested in Congress under Article I.” The judge also knocked aside the Obama Administration’s deft dodge that this was allowed under taxation authority, pointing out that the administration itself had frequently and publicly disputed that the penalty was a tax. From Hudson’s ruling (pgs. 32- 36):
In concluding that Congress did not intend to exercise its powers of taxation under the General Welfare Clause, this Court’s analysis begins with the unequivocal denials by the Executive and Legislative branches that the ACA was a tax.
The federal government, in other words, can’t put a gun to your head, force you to buy healthcare, say that it’s a tax, but argue that it isn’t. Imagine that.
This is surely, ultimately headed to the Supreme Court. Hudson’s ruling in favor of Virginia starts that path out on the right foot.
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