WGA InsureBlog

Today in Florida, U.S. District judge Roger Vinsin ruled on behalf of plaintiffs in a 26 state lawsuit that the Health Care Reform law unconstitutional. This ruling goes beyond the Virginia ruling which focused solely on the constitutionality of employer mandate and whether the government over reached its authority of requiring citizens to purchase a product. Vinsin expanded on that ruling and explained that because the individual mandate is unconstitutional, and more importantly, that the mandate provision is not severable from the rest of the law, he declared the entire law unconstitutional. This is a much more sweeping ruling than had been expected. He however, stopped short of stopping the law from going forward.

Vinson’s ruling will most likely be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court. There is also an appeal scheduled for the Virginia ruling in May.

Connect with Christopher Nadeau on LinkedIn.