Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled today that a key provision of President Obama's health-care law, which requires most Americans to obtain health insurance, is unconstitutional. The New York Times reports:
In a 42-page opinion issued in Richmond, Va., Judge Hudson wrote that the law’s central requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance exceeds the regulatory authority granted to Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The insurance mandate is central to the law’s mission of covering more than 30 million uninsured because insurers argue that only by requiring healthy people to have policies can they afford to treat those with expensive chronic conditions.
The decision is available here (.pdf).
Photo by The White House