A federal judge Monday refused to dismiss a Virginia lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal health-care law, handing the law's foes their first victory in a courtroom battle likely to last years.
The lawsuit, lodged by Virginia Republican Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli II, argues that Congress overstepped its constitutional authority when it included a provision in the law mandating that citizens purchase health insurance by 2014 or pay a fine.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/virginia/va-health-care-lawsuit-to-proc.html"While this case raises a host of complex constitutional issues, all seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate -- and tax -- a citizen's decision not to participate in interstate commerce," Hudson wrote in a 32-page decision.
"Given the presence of some authority arguably supporting the theory underlying each side's position, this court cannot conclude at this stage that the complaint fails to state a cause of action," he wrote.
The U.S. government, which was defending itself through the Health and Human Services Department run by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued that everyone will need medical services at some point in their life and therefore is either a "current or future participation in the health care market," and therefore subject to taxation.
"We do not leave people to die at the emergency room door -- whether they have insurance or not. Those costs -- an estimated $43 billion annually -- are absorbed by everyone else paying into the health care market including doctors, hospitals and insured patients. Congress has the authority under the Commerce Clause to address that cost-shifting burdening the interstate market for health care," argues the brief filed by the Justice Department on behalf of HHS.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/02/judge-permits-virginia-health-care-law-challenge-continue/
