Yesterday - A second federal judge ruled President Obama's health reform law is unconstitutional. Florida Judge Roger Vinson - A Republican appointee - claimed the government has no constitutional grounds to require its citizens to purchase health insurance. Judge Vinson's ruling is similar to another Republican appointed judge in Virginia who last year also declared the individual mandate within Obamacare unconstitutional. That's now 2 judges who've upheld the health reform law - both appointed by Democrats - and 2 judges who've struck down the law - both Republican appointees.
Ultimately - the fate of the politically charged health reform law will be decided by the US Supreme Court - where Conservative judges hold a 5-4 majority. Oddly - unlike Virginia judge Henry Hudson who ruled that only one provision of Obamacare - the individual mandate - was unconstitutional - Judge Vinson argued the entire law was unconstitutional because the individual mandate could not be separated from the larger bill. The basis of his argument comes straight from an amicus brief filed by the Family Research Council - an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled as a hate group
So basically - you have a Republican federal judge ruling Obamacare is unconstitutional and borrowing his legal opinion from a known hate group. And the GOP claims this is writing on the wall for the health care law to be repealed. I'd argue it's writing on the wall - that the GOP sides with hate over compassion. Attending to the basic health care needs of an entire population is a life and death issue. Yet the GOP profits off making it a political issue.
-Thom
(Do you think that any or all of the law is unconstitutional? Tell us here.)
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