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D.C Circuit Court Upholds Health Care Mandate |
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Written by Ron Dutton
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Tuesday, 08 November 2011 22:46 |
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld the health care law’s requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance— and the law’s supporters are declaring victory
because the opinion was written by a conservative judge.
The ruling comes just days before the Supreme Court is
expected to consider whether to take up the issue. That
decision could come as soon as Thursday, when the justices
will hold a private conference to discuss what cases to take this term.
The D.C. Circuit is now the second appeals panel to uphold the health
reform law’s individual mandate.
The D.C. Circuit opinion was written by Laurence Silberman, who was
nominated by former President Ronald Reagan. Silberman and Senior
Judge Harry Edwards, who was nominated by former President Jimmy
Carter, upheld a lower court ruling that the law was constitutional.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who was appointed by former
President George W. Bush, dissented.
The mandate, Silberman wrote, “seems an intrusive exercise of legislative
power" and “certainly is an encroachment on individual liberty, but it is
no more so than a command that restaurants or hotels are obliged to
serve all customers regardless of race, that gravely ill individuals cannot
use a substance their doctors described as the only effective palliative
for excruciating pain or that a farmer cannot grow enough wheat to
support his own family.”“The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute, and yields
to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to
national problems, no matter how local — or seemingly passive —
their individual origins,” Silberman wrote.The D.C. Circuit Court is the fourth appeals panel to consider a lawsuit
challenging the health reform law. The 6th Circuit upheld the law, the 11th
Circuit struck the mandate and the 4th Circuit ruled that the Anti-Injunction
Act— which says Americans have to pay a tax before they can challenge it
in court — barred it from ruling on the mandate until at least 2014.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 November 2011 22:54 |
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