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Courts Race On Obamacare Reform Repeal



Dec 10, 2010 1 Comment ›› Pat Dollard

Politico:

A federal judge in Virginia will rule on one of the most prominent health reform repeal lawsuits Monday, sources tell POLITICO.

The ruling stands to upstage the repeal lawsuit in Florida, where the judge is set to hear long-scheduled oral arguments on Thursday. The Florida and Virginia cases, two among many challenges to the new federal health reform law, stand the best chance at working their way up to the Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson’s chambers confirmed to POLITICO that he will rule on the suit Monday, likely at midday. A George W. Bush appointee, Hudson had previously indicated he would hear the lawsuit before the end of the year.

In August, Hudson threw out an Obama administration request to dismiss the case and ruled that Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli had standing to bring the case. In Monday’s ruling, he will opine on the merits of the case and is generally expected to rule against the White House. Cuccinelli argues that the individual mandate – which means that everyone must buy health insurance — is an unconstitutional expansion of the Commerce Clause.

The individual mandate “literally forges new ground and extends Commerce Clause powers beyond its current high watermark,” Hudson wrote in his August opinion.

In the Florida case, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson had announced he would hold oral arguments on December 16 in Pensacola, Fla. Vinson has previously been critical of the Obama administration in on the health care law, calling one of their arguments an “Alice in Wonderland” defense.

The National Federation of Independent Business alongside 20 states led by Florida’s AG Bill McCollum have signed on to the case in Vinson’s court.


  • Bbiz

    The use of the commerce clause is insincere at best and is little more than a blatant slap at the Constitution and the division of powers between the Fed and the states. Any judge that upholds such a power grab is a traitor. Legal precedent by like minded Dim and Statist judges be damned.

    The precedents need to be overturned to strip these Commmie creeps of the opportunity to continue to strip your feedoms and create an overlord style of Fed, which they have been successful at, so far because everyone was asleep until the radicals landed in Washington…..