Judge Rules Obamacare Mandate Goes Beyond Letter and Spirit of the Constitution

Robert Alt / December 13, 2010

In the most significant decision to date involving the numerous challenges to Obamacare, a district court today ruled in favor of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s challenge, and declared the individual mandate portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.  The fact that the decision is based upon cross motions for summary judgment means among other things, in simple English, that the parties have had two major hearings and two sets of merit briefs before the Court, which has now issued its second major opinion (and this is leaving aside a slew of motions decided by the court). The decision, accordingly, is the most well-developed of any court yet to address the matter, and therefore should cause quite a bit of indigestion for defenders of Obamacare.

Judge Hudson first addressed the Obama administration’s claims that the law is constitutional under the Commerce Clause.  After weighing the arguments and the case law, he found that the mandate’s scheme was without precedent in our country’s history: “Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market.”  (more…)