Yes Virginia, There is a Constitutional Requirement for Federal Legislation

Todd Gaziano / August 02, 2010

In a major blow to an Obama administration seeking to show that the lawsuits challenging Obamacare are “frivolous” by scoring an early dismissal—something it hoped to do before the November elections—a district court ruled to the contrary this morning.  Federal District Judge Henry Hudson rejected the motion by the United States to dismiss Virginia’s lawsuit and allowed it to proceed.

This is the first decision involving a major case challenging the constitutionality of the individual insurance mandate, and so its impact may reverberate beyond this individual case.  The United States made two jurisdictional arguments and two arguments on the merits for a preliminary dismissal of Virginia’s challenge, all of which were rejected by the district judge. (more…)