The full text of the decision from Federal Judge Roger Vinson is not available yet, but according to reporters who’ve seen the decision, he’s ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ruling favors of the 26 state attorney generals challenging the law. The judge ruled the individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance invalid and, according to the decision, “because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void.”
It’s about time the someone in the judiciary began to come to his senses. While it’s true that not buying something is at least potentially an economic activity, it is absolutely absurd to claim that this permits the use of the Commerce Clause to provide constitutional cover for the federal enforcement of mandated purchases of health insurance or anything else.
Of course, now that the Republicans have judicial cover to kill Obamacare once and for all, they’ll probably offer the Democrats a compromise in order to revive most of it.