Πηγή: CNN Politics
By Bill MearsAugust 12, 2011 3:22 p.m. EDT
Washington (CNN) -- A federal appeals court has tossed out key provisions of the sweeping health care reform bill championed by President Obama, setting up a likely election-year showdown at the Supreme Court over the landmark legislation.
A 2-1 panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Friday found that the law's "individual mandate" section -- requiring nearly all Americans to purchase health insurance by 2014 or face financial penalties -- was an improper exercise of federal authority.
"The individual mandate exceeds Congress's enumerated commerce power and is unconstitutional," Chief Judge Joel Dubina wrote. "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."
Significantly, the court concluded that even though that key section is unconstitutional, the entire law need not be set aside. In fact, the judges said law's expansion of the federal Medicaid program was constitutional, since states -- which administer it -- would not bear "the costs of the program's amplified enrollments."
This appeal resulted from in a massive lawsuit brought by Florida and 25 other states opposing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
This ruling conflicts with another federal appeals court in Cincinnati that found the "individual mandate" to be lawful. That sets up an almost certain oral argument and final ruling on the matter from the Supreme Court in coming months.
A federal appeals court in Richmond is also deciding the issue, and an opinion is expected there in the next few weeks.
More than two dozen other legal challenges to the law are floating in lower federal courts.
Washington (CNN) -- A federal appeals court has tossed out key provisions of the sweeping health care reform bill championed by President Obama, setting up a likely election-year showdown at the Supreme Court over the landmark legislation.
A 2-1 panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Friday found that the law's "individual mandate" section -- requiring nearly all Americans to purchase health insurance by 2014 or face financial penalties -- was an improper exercise of federal authority.
"The individual mandate exceeds Congress's enumerated commerce power and is unconstitutional," Chief Judge Joel Dubina wrote. "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."
Significantly, the court concluded that even though that key section is unconstitutional, the entire law need not be set aside. In fact, the judges said law's expansion of the federal Medicaid program was constitutional, since states -- which administer it -- would not bear "the costs of the program's amplified enrollments."
This appeal resulted from in a massive lawsuit brought by Florida and 25 other states opposing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
This ruling conflicts with another federal appeals court in Cincinnati that found the "individual mandate" to be lawful. That sets up an almost certain oral argument and final ruling on the matter from the Supreme Court in coming months.
A federal appeals court in Richmond is also deciding the issue, and an opinion is expected there in the next few weeks.
More than two dozen other legal challenges to the law are floating in lower federal courts.
