As predicted, Pensacola-based U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson declared Monday that the federal health care law passed last year is unconstitutional, writing "Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void." Unlike the Virginia judge who ruled that just the individual mandate was unconstitutional, Vinson declared the entire law to be unconstitutional.
Laura Goodhue of the group Florida Chain took particular umbrage at the idea that all activity related to the health care law is now invalid. "Such action is preposterous, and is tantamount to saying that a new house should be torn to the ground because there is a pending question about a permit for its ventilation system."
Former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum first brought the case to Judge Vinson last year, a move that from the start was criticized by Democrats as "cherry-picking" (Pensacola in the Panhandle is considered one of the more conservative parts of the state).
Since his departure from office, McCollum's successor, Pam Bondi, has taken over the case. Repealing the health care law was one of the prime tenets of her successful victory over Democrat Dan Gelber last November, and she hailed the decision. "Today’s ruling by Judge Vinson is an important victory for every person who believes in the freedoms granted to us by our Constitution. This proves that the federal government requiring Americans to purchase health insurance is in fact unconstitutional."
Unless you've been living on Pluto since Barack Obama was elected president, you know that there is a huge partisan divide on this issue, and you can easily learn who supports the bill or not based on their political affiliation. So for every Marco Rubio or Bondi extolling the judge's ruling today, you'll get an equally vociferous criticism from a Democrat.
Scott Arceneaux is executive director of the Florida Democratic Party. He said the ruling was not only wrong for Florida's seniors, kids and small business owners already benefiting from the Affordable Care Act, but "this latest example of conservative judicial activism wrongly interprets the Constitution."
The ruling comes just after the GOP-led House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and today Tea Party favorite Jim DeMint, the Senator from South Carolina, announced that all 47 Republican members of the Senate are for repeal, as he and his GOP brethren hope that they can compel Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring the repeal measure up for a vote in that august chamber.
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2011.