When the Supreme Court agreed this month to hear the Obamacare constitutional challenge, it didn’t surprise most Court watchers, but the amount of time it set aside for oral argument is highly unusual. That is surprising for a few reasons, most of which should be unsettling to the current administration that is defending the law. The Supreme Court’s Nov. 14 orders were a bit ambiguous on one point, but it seems to have scheduled 5 ½ hours of oral argument on issues related to the one case brought by 26 …
Many predicted the Obama Administration would not stop its delaying tactics in the ObamaCare litigation, which most commentators thought were an attempt to prevent the Supreme Court from deciding the case before the 2012 elections. The Administration received the equivalent of two judicial reprimands in the case brought by 25 states and NFIB that it ultimately lost in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. It was that very case in which the Administration could have tried one more delaying maneuver, by asking the full court (en banc) …
Although the Court’s last term was generally regarded as pretty boring, the upcoming term that begins on Oct. 3 has the potential to be the term of the decade, or as some hope, the term of the century. Yet the story of the Court’s 2011 term really began months, or even years, ago. For example, the Obamacare legislation that passed in early 2010 led to a series of cases that have already resulted in one petition for certiorari that is currently pending before the justices, with several more Obamacare petitions …
This afternoon, the District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania became the latest court to strike down the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (Obamacare) individual mandate, holding that “[t]he power to regulate interstate commerce does not subsume the power to dictate a lifetime financial commitment to health insurance coverage.” The challenge was brought by a Barbara Goudy-Bachman and Gregory Bachman, who are both self-employed and have chosen to drop their health insurance because it exceeded their monthly mortgage payments. Instead, Bachmans opted to pay for health care out …
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 …
Today’s Supreme Court decision in which it struck down California’s law restricting the sale or rental of violent video games to minors (PDF) is an important First Amendment decision that is not subject to a simple liberal/conservative breakdown, but the more interesting contrast may be between the votes in this case and another decision today and last Thursday. Seven justices voted to strike down California’s violent video game law, but the seven justices split into two camps. Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, …
President Obama spent weeks marshalling support from foreign governments for a military intervention in Libya but virtually no time consulting with the U.S. Congress or trying to explain to the American people why intervention served our national interests. Almost three months later, coalition forces are involved in a costly stalemate and we still have no clear sense why our forces are engaged. It is time for Congress to assert itself, but it should not do so in a way that squanders its authority or ends in an empty gesture. President …
After weeks of delay, the Obama Administration finally went ahead and did it. Early last night, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a notice of appeal in Florida v. HHS, the multi-state lawsuit that has the best chance of striking down Obamacare. And this morning, DOJ filed a motion in the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals for expedited review of the case, which was a condition the district judge imposed on the DOJ to grant its request for a stay of the judgment pending appeal. This is a significant …
After weeks of delay, the Obama Administration finally went ahead and did it. Early Tuesday night, the Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal in Florida v. HHS, the multi-state lawsuit that has the best chance of striking down Obamacare. This is a routine filing with the district court, but it is a necessary step in the march to the Supreme Court. But there’s a small nugget of news buried in the filing for those who have been following the case closely: the filing is two days early! That …
Late Thursday, February 17, the Obama Administration filed an incredibly odd and almost insulting “Motion to Clarify” the judgment in the case it lost against 26 states and the NFIB in the Obamacare litigation in Florida v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, No. 10-cv-00091 (N. D. Fla.)(Judge Vinson). With this motion, the Administration has now stated officially that, notwithstanding the Judge’s declaration of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) as unconstitutional, the Administration does not interpret the Judge’s order as requiring the Administration to …
