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Federal Judge Rules That State AGs' Challenge To ObamaCare May Proceed

This article is more than 10 years old.

In a major blow to the Administration, a federal judge in Florida who had the opportunity to toss a multi-state lawsuit to invalidate the health reform bill has ruled that it can proceed.

Led by Florida, 20 States joined forces to sue the Deparatment of Health and Human Services. They made six legal arguments that boiled down to: The Feds can't impose a tax on people who don't buy insurance nor can they modify the Medicaid program without violating states rights.

The Administration seems to have been caught flat-footed, especially on the issue of whether it has a constitutional ability to penalize someone financially for not buying a particular product. In the judge's discussion of this, in which he refused to throw out the States' claim, he seems to mock the Administration for changing its legal defense midstream.

To quote from the ruling by Judge Roger Vinson (a Reagan appointee): "Congress should not be permitted to secure and cast politically difficult votes on controversial legislation by deliberately calling something one thing, after which the defenders of that legislation take an “Alice-in-Wonderland” tack and argue in court that Congress really meant something else entirely, thereby circumventing the safeguard that exists to keep their broad power in check."

Here's a link to my original entry on this lawsuit.

And here's the PDF of today's ruling.

Follow me on Twitter. And if you have a story idea e-mail me at dwhelan@forbes.com.