{"id":3982,"date":"2011-02-01T10:08:21","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T18:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3982"},"modified":"2011-02-01T10:08:21","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T18:08:21","slug":"activist-republican-judge-rules-hcr-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/01\/activist-republican-judge-rules-hcr-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"Activist Republican Judge Rules HCR Unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know that there is a broad spectrum of reactions on the left to the individual mandate in Health Care Reform.  Personally, I don\u2019t like it, but I understand that it was included in the bill to attract Republican support, because it is a Republican idea, since disavowed.  I also understand that it\u2019s inclusion prevents people from waiting until they are sick to purchase insurance, driving up the rates for everyone else.  I\u2019m sure we can find another way to deal with that problem.  Although I don\u2019t like it, I do believe that it is legal under the Commerce Clause, and I\u2019m not one of those hypocrites who interpret the law according to what I want it to be.  Apparently the judge is.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

The Department of Justice released <\/font><\/font>a statement<\/font><\/a> today saying that the government "strongly disagrees with the court\u2019s ruling today and continue to believe \u2013 as other federal courts have found \u2013 that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional."  The White House’s Stephanie Cutter <\/font>blogged<\/font><\/a><\/font> that this is a "plain case of judicial overreaching<\/strong>."<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

The judge\u2019s decision contradicts decades of Supreme Court precedent that support the considered judgment of the democratically elected branches of government that the Act\u2019s \u201cindividual responsibility\u201d provision is necessary to prevent billions of dollars of cost-shifting every year by individuals without insurance who cannot pay for the health care they obtain<\/strong>. And the judge declared that the entire law is null and void even though the only provision he found unconstitutional was the \u201cindividual responsibility\u201d provision<\/strong>. This decision is at odds with decades of established Supreme Court law, which has  consistently found that courts have a constitutional obligation to preserve as a much of a statute as can be preserved. As a result, the judge\u2019s decision puts all of the new benefits, cost savings and patient protections that were included in the law at risk….<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t believe this kind of judicial activism will be upheld and we are confident that the Affordable Care Act will ultimately be declared constitutional by the courts.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

History and the facts are on our side. Similar legal challenges to major new laws — including the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act — were all filed and all failed. And contrary to what opponents argue the new law falls well within Congress\u2019s power to regulate economic activity under the Commerce Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause, and the General Welfare Clause. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

In a background call, senior administration officials stressed that implementation of the Affordable Care Act will continue (Vinson did not issue an injunction) and the administration will appeal this decision and is confident of a reversal\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Daily Kos<\/a>><\/p>\n

Vinson also called his decision in the case \u201cunique\u201d, repeating the language of Bush v. Gore<\/em>.  Effectively this means that his ruling establishes no precedent.  Lawrence O\u2019Donnell covered the issue well interviewing Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and journalist Ezra Klein.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

This law needs to be fixed.  Adding a Medicare Option, available to all, would do most of the fixing in one step.  That is a far better solution than starting over.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know that there is a broad spectrum of reactions on the left to the individual mandate in Health Care Reform.  Personally, I don\u2019t like it, but I understand that it was included in the bill to attract Republican support, because it is a Republican idea, since disavowed.  I also understand that it\u2019s inclusion prevents […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}