As I predicted, a judge in Virginia has declared the individual purchase mandate unconstitutional. From the story:
A federal judge in Virginia has declared the Obama administration’s health care reform law unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson is the first judge to rule against the law, which has been upheld by two others in Virginia and Michigan. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed the lawsuit challenging the law’s requirement that citizens buy health insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014.
I’ll try and find the decision when it is posted, and provide more details.
Two other federal courts have gone the other way. But this case involves a state litigant suing based on its own public policy, not a private party. I believe the case in Florida involving 20 states will soon follow suit.
This much is sure: Obamacare goes to the Supremes—probably in 2012—and I think the IPM falls—and with it, the law, since mandate is the crucial linchpin of the entire edifice.
