The U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, located in Atlanta, decided on Friday, August 12, 2011 that the Affordable Care Act’s requirement for all Americans to buy healthcare insurance is unconstitutional.
However, the three-judge panel also reversed a lower Florida court’s decision that the entire law is unconstitutional.
Florida Judge Roger Vinson, appointed by Ronald Reagan, had argued that the mandate is so central to the law’s function that the rest of the law is invalid without the mandate. “I must conclude that the individual mandate and the remaining provisions are all inextricably bound together in purpose and must stand or fall as a single unit,” Vinson wrote. In contrast, the 11th Circuit Appeals Court refused to invalidate the entire law.
The Obama administration argued that the insurance mandate falls under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce. Twenty-six states challenged the mandate, arguing that Congress had exceeded its authority by imposing the requirement. In a jointly-written opinion, Judge Joel Dubina appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush and Judge Frank Hull appointed by Democrat President Bill Clinton disagreed with the administration’s view.
“This economic mandate represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives,” the two judges stated in the majority opinion.
Judge Stanley Marcus, also appointed by Clinton, wrote the dissenting minority opinion. The majority, he stated, ignored “the undeniable fact that Congress’ commerce power has grown exponentially over the past two centuries and is now generally accepted as having afforded Congress the authority to create rules regulating large areas of our national economy.”
The Obama administration stated that it disagrees strongly with the majority ruling and expects that the decision will not stand.
The legal status of the individual mandate is expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The 11th Circuit Appeals Court decision contrasts with an earlier one by the 6th Circuit Court in Cincinnati, which upheld the individual insurance mandate as constitutional. That case has been appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond has yet to rule in a separate case brought by the state of Virginia. A federal judge in Virginia had ruled the mandate unconstitutional, as well
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