There’s been a lot of discussion about who is affected by the rulings in VA and FL. Levin said the FL ruling applies nationwide, since what is unconstitutional in FL is unconstitutional in all states.
I don’t recall the same discussion about the VA case. It may be because it was only the Commonwealth of VA that brought the suit and its application to a conflict with state law. Although, under the same principle Levin expressed aout the FL case, if J. Hudson in the VA court declared part(s) of the federal law unconstitutional, wouldn’t it be unconstitutional nationally?
But insofar as the VA decision applies only to VA based on conflict with a VA law, how would it affect the other states in the 4th Circuit. You can bet MD isn’t opposed to any aspect of the federal law.
There difference, I think, is that the VA judge ruled only the individual mandate unconstitutional, so the states were still under obligation to comply with all the other elements of the law (setting up the so-called “exchanges” for example).
However, with the FL ruling that the entire law is unconstitutional, the states are no longer under any obligation to comply with any part of the law, so they shouldn’t have to waste all the money and manpower building a system that, at least for now, has been voided.
It seems some states want to play it safe and execute the law anyway, just in case it is ultimately found constitutional. Other states (the blue ones) simply want Obamacare, so are already proceeding to implement it, pissing away scarce taxpayer dollars building a system that most likely will be struck down by the Supremes.
The Supreme Court owes it the the American taxpayer to expedite a ruling on this monstrosity, once and for all.