Posted on 08/19/2011 12:27:36 PM PDT by IndePundit
In the most comprehensive judicial opinion to date, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit last week ruled (2-1) that Congress cannot compel Americans to buy and maintain health insurance.
Unlike the Florida district court that earlier found ObamaCare unconstitutional, the 11th Circuit did not invalidate the entire law. But it likewise reaffirmed the fundamental constitutional rule that our federal government is one of enumerated powers with judicially enforceable limits.
Congress enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 in order to guarantee near-universal health-insurance coverage. According to this law, individuals who do not have a health plan through their employers, and who do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid benefits, must buy a plan from private insurance companies. Congress relied on its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce to impose this unprecedented mandate.
In fact, the individual insurance mandate does not regulate commerce. It imposes a freestanding obligation that must be satisfied regardless of whether one is engaged in commerce.
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Slapdown from the Court: “The individual mandate was enacted as a regulatory penalty, not a revenue-raising tax, and is therefore unconstitutional”...“This economic mandate represents a wholly novel and potential 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.”
I’m not even worried about the Vinson decision appeal anymore. This thing is signed, sealed, delivered, and ready for a ruling from the Supremes.
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