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: The Buck Stops Here

What Does the Ruling Against the Health Care Mandate Actually Accomplish?

By Stuart Buck, Esq.

A federal district judge in Virginia recently issued an order declaring unconstitutional that portion of Obama's health care plan that required individuals to purchase health insurance. This decision is unsurprisingly controversial, and has already been the subject of much commentary. What I don't see anyone mentioning is the fact that the judge's ruling applies only to the specific plaintiff -- the Commonwealth of Virginia -- not to anyone else nationwide. Indeed, it's not clear to me that the judge's ruling would apply to any of the private citizens of Virginia.Why do I say this? First, the district court did not issue an injunction here that would purport to prevent the federal government from enforcing the statute elsewhere. Second, it seems very questionable to me whether the district court would have had the power to issue such an injunction in the first place...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Buck Stops Here on December 14, 2010 (boomark / email).