There’s been another step forward in having the United States Supreme Court hear the constitutional challenges to ObamaCare.
As I told you last week, our legal team completed oral arguments in our federal lawsuit urging a federal appeals court in Washington to reinstate our lawsuit and declare the individual mandate, which forces Americans to purchase health insurance, unconstitutional. During the hearing, serious questions were raised about whether Congress overstepped its authority with Judge Brett Kavanaugh putting it this way: “In 220 years there has been a whole lot of laws and a lot of crises, yet Congress has never once mandated a purchase.”
As we await a decision in our case, there’s another case challenging ObamaCare that’s moving down the track headed for the Supreme Court.
The Obama Administration has decided not to appeal a decision by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit which determined the individual mandate was unconstitutional. This is a case out of Florida where we filed a critical amicus brief representing 74 members of Congress and more than 70,000 Americans. Instead of asking the full appeals court to rehear the case, the Obama Administration has decided to take the appeal directly to the Supreme Court.
In my mind, there’s never really been a question about whether the Supreme Court will hear ObamaCare, it’s been more of a question of timing. There is a split between the appeals courts. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the mandate, the 11th Circuit has ruled it unconstitutional, and the 4th Circuit has ruled that a tax law prevents it from issuing a decision on the mandate until at least 2014.
A couple of questions still remain: which case or cases will the high court actually take? And, will they tackle this issue before the November 2012 elections? Important questions that are likely to be answered soon.
We will keep you posted. Get the latest information on our website at the Jay Sekulow page.
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