So they reversed, not dismissed but didn’t reach the merits.
I figured that the article had it wrong.
I hope VA requests rehearing en banc. Wasn’t the basis for their suit a state law? They would have standing if that’s the case.
The very reason VA sued was to try to get the federal judiciary to deem the mandate unconstitutional. Virginia knew that their law could not stop the federal government from enforcing the mandate. If let’s say hypothetically that the VA law could actually protect its citizens from the federal individual mandate then they would not have put up the resources or time to challenge the law in federal court to begin with or have a need to challenge the federal mandate in court.