The Supreme Court’s term has barely begun, and yet speculation already abounds regarding when the Court will hear and how it will decide politically controversial cases such as Obamacare, racial preferences, immigration, and same-sex marriage. Court watchers offer their predictions on the outcomes of the cases, but many if not most simply presume that the justices will decide the cases based on what they individually believe to be good policy, rather than based on any requirement in the law. Liberal activist judges have given the public reason to believe judging …
Today the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected two challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)—better known as ObamaCare—on procedural grounds. Because the court found procedural problems in both cases, it did not reach the constitutional question of whether the individual mandate is constitutional. Importantly, the procedural problems identified in these cases either don’t exist, or will be unpersuasive to the Supreme Court, which already has a petition before it to hear another challenge to ObamaCare. Accordingly, today’s decisions add nothing to the discussion over the constitutionality …
This afternoon, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), more commonly known as Obamacare, is unconstitutional. The carefully worded and thorough (over 300 page) set of opinions may be a bit mind-numbing for the uninitiated, but they are a joy to read for those of us who think the words of the Constitution actually mean something beyond whatever an activist Congress, President, and pliant judge want them to mean. The …
Yesterday, the Supreme Court denied Virginia’s motion to bypass the appellate court and go directly to the Supreme Court in its challenge to the Obamacare litigation. The Court’s decision not to hear the case, delivered in an order without comment, was not surprising. While the procedure exists for the Court to hear cases after a decision of the district court but before a decision of the court of appeals, it almost never does. And when I say “almost never does,” let me be clear: Playing the lottery probably has better …
Late yesterday, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Obama DOJ yet another defeat in the Obamacare litigation—this time related to how quickly the appeal will proceed. Readers of this blog know that the Obama DOJ has been attempting to slow walk its appeal of Judge Vinson’s ruling. Judge Vinson stayed his decision striking down the whole of Obamacare, but only if the DOJ filed for expedited review in the 11th Circuit. The DOJ did file for expedited review on Wednesday, but as Todd Gaziano noted at the …
Today’s decision by Judge Vinson is another stinging defeat for the administration in its defense of Obamacare. Defenders of the health care bill had tried to paint any legal challenge as “frivolous.” When then-Speaker Pelosi was asked by a reporter “where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate,” Pelosi responded incredulously, “Are you serious? Are you serious?” To wit, Judge Vinson offered a serious response, striking down not only the mandate, but the whole of the health care bill. In a 78-page …
In the most significant decision to date involving the numerous challenges to Obamacare, a district court today ruled in favor of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s challenge, and declared the individual mandate portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The fact that the decision is based upon cross motions for summary judgment means among other things, in simple English, that the parties have had two major hearings and two sets of merit briefs before the Court, which has now issued its second major opinion (and this is leaving …
When Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was asked by a reporter “where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate,” she responded, “Are you serious? Are you serious?” Today comes an answer from Florida, 19 other states, and the National Federation of Independent Businesses: they are very serious. Federal District Court Judge Roger Vinson today rejected the Obama administration’s invitation to throw their case out, allowing the constitutional challenge to proceed. The 65-page decision is reasoned and methodical. To give but a taste, the …
Today is “first Monday,” the beginning of the Supreme Court’s 2010 term. With the beginning of the term comes a flurry of cases added to the docket for the year. These additions form a significant portion of the select few cases that the Court chooses to hear during the course of the term: less than 100 out of more than 10,000 vying for review. Among the cases that the Court added to the docket late last week is Stern v. Marshall—the unending case of Anna Nicole Smith (actually her estate) …
Deputy Director of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation Robert Alt is scheduled to testify as a minority witness this Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the nomination of Elena Kagan to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Throughout the hearings, he and his colleagues will be providing real-time updates here at The Foundry. 5:56 PM – An Alienating Response on Inalienable Rights Should we take Elena Kagan at her word when it comes to her thoughts …
