Will the court rule Monday?

I have seen some articles in the paper suggesting that the Supreme Court may rule as soon as Monday on “Obamacare.” It has been hard waiting these past few months. It is to be firmly hoped that the act will be completely thrown out, so that we can start again from scratch. While there are good features, everything is so intricately interlocked that we can't just pick and choose which clauses of the act will be thrown out — and as Judge Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida determined (though he alone has so ruled) the absence of a severability clause implies that the entire law must go on the basis of his determination that the mandate is unconstitutional. But we cannot get into the heads of the nine Justices. Some may feel that there are parts of the act worth saving, and be reluctant to throw the whole bill out. After all, except for Judge Vinson, other judges who did rule the individual mandate unconstitutional still would retain the rest of the bill.

Really, this wait is killing me.

A most unusual turn in the health care law's progress

It isn't often that a judge issues a stay on his own ruling. But Roger Vinson, who ruled the health care law unconstitutional back on Jan. 31, has just done so. It seems that the normal procedure would be that the Federal Government would request a stay, but instead the Obama Administration dithered about for 2½ weeks and finally issued only a "motion to clarify." Judge Vinson treated it as a request for a stay, granted the stay, but gave the administration only one week to file its appeal. While, on its face, the stay is a (temporary) victory for the Administration, in fact most people see this as another nail in the coffin of the so-called "Affordable Care Act." (For example, see this post.)

Judge Vinson's excellent decision

Now there are two decisions by Federal judges that the 2010 health care law is unconstitutional because of the individual mandate. Judge C. Roger Vinson, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, handed down a decision Monday. And ths one, like Judge Henry Hudson's back in December, ruled it unconstitutional. But Judge Vinson's decision went even further than Judge Hudson's. Because there was no "severability clause," Judge Vinson's decision said the whole law has to be thrown out. (Judge Hudson had left room for other parts of the act to stand.)

Two other judges have ruled the other way. So it will take a Supreme Court decision to make the final call. But with two such decisions, there is a much stronger chance that the Supreme Court will agree to kill the individual mandate (and thus, probably, the whole plan). Good work, Judge Vinson. And on to the Supreme Court! It is clear that this, rather than theatrics in the House of Representatives, is the way to go. The House cannot repeal the bill by itself, not as long as the Democrats continue to control the Senate and Pres. Obama has a veto power. So it has to be the judicial branch that we look to in order to kill this unreasonable law.