Religious Conservatives Praise Health Care Ruling

Religious conservatives are weighing in on a federal judge agreeing with the constitutional challenge launched by Florida against the health care law backed by Presidential Barack Obama.

Federal Judge Robert Vinson, who has presided over the multistate lawsuit against Obamacare, today declared the individual mandate unconstitutional and struck down the entire law, noted former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer in an e-mail to supporters sent out on Monday. In October Judge Vinson wrote, The power that the individual mandate seeks to harness is simply without prior precedent. Today, Judge Vinson ruled, Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire act must be declared void.

But Judge Vinson's ruling is not a fatal blow to Obamacare, added Bauer. The administration is certain to appeal, and the judge did not issue an injunction against the continued implementation of the law. Nevertheless, his opinion should bolster the determination of Senate Republicans to force a vote on repealing Obamacare while the case works its way to the Supreme Court.

The Family Research Council (FRC), which Bauer used to lead, also weighed in, pointing to a brief their special counsel Ken Klukowski filed on their behalf. Vinson quoted Klukowskis brief which argued that the individual mandate made the entire law unconstitutional.

"Today's ruling makes clear that as long as the mandate is in place, the entire law rests on an unconstitutional foundation. If the foundation crumbles, the whole law falls, said Klukowski, who leads the FRC's Center for Religious Liberty. "We applaud Judge Vinson for striking down the entire law, recognizing that the individual mandate cannot be severed from the other 450 sections of the statute. The individual mandate is the essential heart of this legislation. We are grateful that Judge Vinson agreed with our argument that controlling Supreme Court precedents require striking down the entire law.

"No part of the Constitution empowers the federal government to command American citizens to spend their own personal money to purchase health insurance, added Klukowski. "We urge the Senate to follow the lead of the House of Representatives and move to repeal this unconstitutional law in its entirety, not merely to tinker with various provisions."

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