Obamacare In Flames

Great news for those who cherish the finest health care delivery system the world has ever known:

Judge: Obama's health overhaul unconstitutional
By Melissa Nelson and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press

Pensacola, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Florida ruled Monday that President Barack Obama's entire health care overhaul law is unconstitutional, placing even noncontroversial provisions under a cloud in a broad challenge that seems certain to be resolved only by the Supreme Court.

Faced with a major legal setback, the White House called the ruling by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson — in a challenge to the law by 26 of the nation's 50 states — "a plain case of judicial overreaching." That echoed language the judge had used to describe the law as an example of Congress overstepping its authority.

Vinson ruled against the overhaul on grounds that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring nearly all Americans to carry health insurance ... [link]

It's too bad that we have to rely on the judiciary to do what members of Congress - those with common sense anyway - should have done.  That is to stop this monster in its tracks.  But we'll take the victory however it is fashioned.  It's that important.

Now on to a higher court ...

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George Allen released the following statement on the ruling:

Today’s ruling by Judge Roger Vinson in Florida is another victory for the voices of Virginians and Americans who oppose this unfair, anti-job, unconstitutional federal government dictate. The constitutionally sound judgments made by Judge Vinson and Judge Hudson echo what Americans have believed all along – that this health care bill and its odious mandates exceed the constitutional bounds of the federal government.

Recently Senator Webb said he would ‘prefer’ to let the bill play out in the courts and then ‘adapt.’ It is past time for Senator Webb and his liberal colleagues to ‘adapt’ and work to repeal this monstrosity. Rather than dictates and dependency, we need to replace this massive, expensive experiment with reforms that foster more affordable and accessible health care opportunities for families and small business owners. [received via email]

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Attorney General Cuccinelli had this:

I am heartened by the fact that another federal judge has found that the individual mandate forcing citizens to buy private health insurance is unconstitutional. The judge also found that the individual mandate could not be severed from the remainder of the law, so he declared the entire act invalid.

Constitutional principles have scored another victory today. Liberty has scored another victory today.

I congratulate Florida Attorney General Bondi, former Attorney General McCollum, and the attorneys general and governors who joined the Florida suit, on their victory. [received via email]

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The Wall Street Journal this morning:

Federal Judge Roger Vinson opens his decision declaring ObamaCare unconstitutional with that citation from Federalist No. 51, written by James Madison in 1788. His exhaustive and erudite opinion is an important moment for American liberty, and yesterday may well stand as the moment the political branches were obliged to return to the government of limited and enumerated powers that the framers envisioned.

As Judge Vinson took pains to emphasize, the case is not really about health care at all, or the wisdom—we would argue the destructiveness—of the newest entitlement. Rather, the Florida case goes to the core of the architecture of the American system, and whether there are any remaining limits on federal control. Judge Vinson's 78-page ruling in favor of 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business, among others, is by far the best legal vindication to date of Constitutional principles that form the outer boundaries of federal power.

It's a good day.

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When kids are given keyboards ...

See the Washington Post's Ezra Klein try to make a legal defense of Obamacare without having a shred of legal experience or understanding ("GOP judge rules against Affordable Care Act").

Amusing.  In a pathetic sort of way.

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Best of all?  Judge Vinson used as one of his arguments to throw Obama's signature legislation out ...

... Obama's own argument (back when he was Candidate Obama). How sweet is this?

Judge rules against health law, cites Obama’s words
By Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times

In ruling against President Obama‘s health care law, federal Judge Roger Vinson used Mr. Obama‘s own position from the 2008 campaign against him, when the then-Illinois senator argued there were other ways to achieve reform short of requiring every American to purchase insurance.

“I note that in 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that, ‘If a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house,’” Judge Vinson wrote in a footnote toward the end of his 78-page ruling Monday. [link]

That's right.  In the mold of John Kerry, Obama was against it before he was for it.

And now a federal judge has used Obama's argument against a portion of Obamacare to toss out all of Obamacare.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.