Last Modified: January 31st, 2011 12:18 PM
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- A federal judge declared the Obama administration's
health care overhaul unconstitutional Monday, siding with 26 states
that sued to block it, saying that people can't be required to buy
health insurance.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson agreed with the states that the new
law violates people's rights by forcing them to buy health insurance
by 2014 or face penalties. He went a step further than a previous
ruling against the law, declaring the entire thing unconstitutional if
the insurance requirement does not hold up.
Attorneys for the administration had argued that the states did not
have standing to challenge the law and that the case should be
dismissed.
The final step will almost certainly be the U.S. Supreme Court. Two
other federal judges have already upheld the law and a federal judge
in Virginia ruled the insurance mandate unconstitutional but stopped
short of voiding the entire thing.
At issue was whether the government is reaching beyond its
constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce by requiring
citizens to purchase health insurance or face tax penalties.
Vinson said it is, writing in his 78-page ruling that if the
government can require people to buy health insurance, it could also
regulate food the same way.
"Or, as discussed during oral argument, Congress could require that
people buy and consume broccoli at regular intervals," he wrote, "Not
only because the required purchases will positively impact interstate
commerce, but also because people who eat healthier tend to be
healthier, and are thus more productive and put less of a strain on
the health care system."
Obama administration attorneys had argued that the health care system
was part of the interstate commerce system. They said the government
can levy a tax penalty on Americans who decide not to purchase health
insurance because all Americans are consumers of medical care.
But attorneys for the states said the administration was essentially
coercing the states into participating in the overhaul by holding
billions of Medicaid dollars hostage. The states also said the federal
government is violating the Constitution by forcing a mandate on the
states without providing money to pay for it.
Florida's former Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum filed the
lawsuit just minutes after President Barack Obama signed the 10-year,
$938 billion health care bill into law in March. He chose a court in
Pensacola, one of Florida's most conservative cities. The nation's
most influential small business lobby, the National Federation of
Independent Business, also joined.
Officials in the states that sued lauded Vinson's decision. Almost all
of them have Republican governors, attorneys general or both.
"In making his ruling, the judge has confirmed what many of us knew
from the start; ObamaCare is an unprecedented and unconstitutional
infringement on the liberty of the American people," Florida GOP Gov.
Rick Scott said in a statement.
Other states that joined the suit are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona,
Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine,
Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington,
Wisconsin and Wyoming.
---
Associated Press Writer Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this
report.
Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/01/31/1676863/florida-judge-rules-federal-health.html#ixzz1CeTM70gT
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