And so it begins..In the first substantive legal ruling on President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, a federal judge has rejected the Justice Department’s request to dismiss a lawsuit from Virginia’s state government challenging the reform’s requirement that individuals purchase health insurance.
U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson ruled that enough legal issues were in dispute in the case to allow the suit, brought by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, to go forward. At issue is whether the insurance mandate included in the reform exceeds the federal government’s authority under the Constitution — in particular, whether Congress’s ability to regulate commerce allows the federal government to penalize those who decline to buy or obtain health insurance.
The lawsuit is also based in part on a law passed in that state in March seeking to bar the federal government from imposing any mandate to purchase health insurance.
“Unquestionably, this regulation radically changes the landscape of health insurance coverage in America,” Hudson wrote in a 32-page decision filed Monday morning. “Never before has the Commerce Clause … been extended this far.”
Hudson said there was no clear legal precedent allowing the federal government to impose such a rule, even under Congress’s power to require individuals to pay taxes. However, he also conceded there was no clear precedent to the contrary.
“Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor any circuit court of appeals has squarely addressed this issue,” Hudson wrote. “No reported case from any federal appellate court has extended the Commerce Clause or the Tax Clause to include the regulation of a person’s decision not to purchase a product, notwithstanding its effect on interstate commerce.”
The Justice Department has argued that an individual’s decision not to buy insurance inevitably affects commerce because all individuals seek health care services at some point in their lives and many who lack insurance end up burdening others who do have policies.
While the decision is a legal setback for the Obama administration, Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler stressed that the judge’s decision doesn’t foreclose the federal government’s arguments.
"Today's ruling is merely a procedural decision by the court to allow this case to move forward,” Schmaler said. “We believe there is clear and well-established legal precedent that Congress acted within its constitutional authority in passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. We are confident that the health care reform statute is constitutional and that we will ultimately prevail.”
"No one here expected to win this one," said a White House aide, who asked not to be named.
Cuccinelli praised the ruling as a step forward in the effort to restrain federal authority over states and individuals.
“This lawsuit is not about health care, it’s about our freedom and about standing up and calling on the federal government to follow the ultimate law of the land – the Constitution,” Cuccinelli said in a statement. “The government cannot draft an unwilling citizen into commerce just so it can regulate him under the Commerce Clause.”
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