The news is just now breaking, so no wire stories have popped up yet and the decision, said to be about 300 pages, has not been posted. Look here for links as the news rolls in.
Update: Here we go.
An appeals court ruled on Friday that President Barack Obama’s healthcare law requiring Americans to buy healthcare insurance or face a penalty was unconstitutional, a blow to the White House.
The Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, found that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage, but also ruled that the rest of the wide-ranging law could remain in effect.
That last part makes little sense, since the law had no severability clause in it. Kill one part, you kill it all has been the theory. Kicking out the mandate but leaving the rest intact makes things even messier, in my opinion.
Anyway, everyone knows this thing is headed to the Supreme Court, where Anthony Kennedy’s mood will determine whether the interstate commerce clause can be used to force people to buy a product that they cannot buy across state lines.
Update: This ruling concerns the multi-state lawsuit against ObamaCare.
The case stems from a challenge by 26 U.S. states which had argued the individual mandate, set to go into effect in 2014, was unconstitutional because Congress could not force Americans to buy health insurance or face the prospect of a penalty.
“This economic mandate represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives,” a divided three-judge panel said.
Obama and his administration had pressed for the law to help halt the steep increases in healthcare costs and expand insurance coverage to the more than 30 million Americans who are without it.
The decision was 2-1.
Update: Legal Insurrection has more.
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