Judge Vinson ruled a month ago that Obamacare is unconstitutional. He refused to issue an injunction at the time, presuming naively that the administration would respect his opinion and act accordingly. But as the judge has learned, this is not an administration that respects the rule of law—the examples of which could be listed, but the subjects are generally outside our jurisdiction.
I also wrote that the administration was pursuing a go slow strategy to drag out the appeals process so as to get as much of Obamacare as possible up and running before it gets to the Supremes—hoping to create a fait accompli atmosphere, hoping it would make the justices reluctant to overturn. Vinson sees that and has ordered the filing of an expedited appeal of his ruling. From the story:
In a harshly worded opinion, Judge Roger Vinson, the Florida federal judge who struck down the entire health care law in January, gave the Obama administration seven days from today to appeal his ruling with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Vinson issued the 20 page ruling today after the Obama administration had asked him to clarify his original opinion and tell the government whether his ruling was meant to strike down provisions of the law currently in effect. In the ruling Vinson is critical of Justice Department lawyers for waiting nearly two weeks before filing a “motion to clarify.” “While I believe that my order was as clear and unambiguous as it could be,” Vinson wrote, “it is possible that the defendants may have perhaps been confused or misunderstood its import.”
He reiterated his finding that the Congress exceeded its authority when it passed the individual mandate and said that because the mandate was unseverable from the rest of the Act the entire legislation was void. He said that his order applied to all parts of the law, including those provisions currently in effect. He said he had expected the government lawyers to immediately seek a stay of the ruling. “It was not expected” he wrote, “that they would effectively ignore the order and declaratory judgment for two and one-half weeks, continue to implement the Act, and only then file a belated motion to “clarify.”
Vinson also has said that the Adm. can continue to implement the law, effectively a stay of his ruling, for one week. (Why do we seem to always reward scofflaws!) But if it continues to drag its feet, a different result is likely:
However, the stay will be conditioned upon the defendants filing their anticipated appeal with seven (7) calendar days of this order and seeking an expedited appellate review, either in the Court of Appeals or with the Supreme Court.
So, at least for the moment, the administration is back on the right side of the rule of law with regard to Vinson’s ruling. But for how long? Don’t be surprised if the administration allows the time to pass, and/or does not seek an expedited appeal—and then when he finally lowers the boom, seeks a stay of Vinson’s ruling from the Appeals court without an expedited request. The Obaama Justice Department has commonly exercised such bad faith. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
As I have written, I believe that clarity is so urgent in this matter that the Supremes should take the extraordinary step of hearing a direct appeal from all the trial court Obamacare cases, and thereby avoid the usual Court of Appeals way stations that will waste about a year of time.
