Florida judge rules health care law unconstitutional.
Just In
First Read - Florida judge rules health care law unconstitutional
A federal judge has ruled that the health care reform bill signed into law by President Barack Obama in March is unconstitutional.
Judge Roger Vinson, a Reagan appointee serving in Pensacola, Florida, ruled that key components of the law are unconstitutional and that the entire law "must be declared void."
Today’s decision is the second ruling by a federal judge against the constitutionality of the health care legislation. Two other federal courts have upheld the constitutionality of the law, including its requirement that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
While the lawsuit addressed in Vinson’s ruling is the largest of its kind – with 26 states having signed on – today’s decision is likely just one more step in the law’s march to the United States Supreme Court.
But this is the biggest court victory yet for opponents of the law's requirement that all Americans by health insurance.
Florida judge strikes down Obama health care law
Florida judge strikes down Obama health care law - The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency
A federal judge in Florida has struck down the Obama administration's requirement that all Americans buy health insurance, and questioned the constitutionality of the entire health care law.
"I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate," wrote U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, the second federal jurist to rule against law that Obama signed last year.
Two other judges have sided with the administration on the issue that may well win up in the Supreme Court.
Obama and his aides said the requirement that all Americans, known as the individual mandate, is essential to financing the plan -- and that is exactly the reason opponents of the health care law have targeted it in a series of federal lawsuits.
The law requires all Americans to buy health insurance in 2014, or face fines.
Vinson, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, drew a case filed by GOP attorney generals in 26 states within hours of the law's signing in March.
The case -- which the government is now likely to appeal -- revolves around competing views of the federal government regulation of interstate commerce.
The states that sued argue that Congress and the federal government cannot force to engage in commerce; i.e., buy insurance.
The federal governmnent argue that it -- and taxpayers -- often pick up medical costs incurred by the uninsured, making health care a legitimate object of regulation.
President Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act in 2010.
http://www.cfnews13.com/static/artic...bios/obama.jpg
