Last week, 26 states asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling against Obamacare:
The motion, filed on behalf of 26 states, urges the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to uphold a Florida federal judge’s ruling that the overhaul’s core requirement is unconstitutional. The judge, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, said Congress cannot require nearly all Americans to carry health insurance.
Allowing the law to go forward, the states argued in the 69-page filing, would set a troubling precedent that “would imperil individual liberty, render Congress’s other enumerated powers superfluous, and allow Congress to usurp the general police power reserved to the states.”
Senate Republicans are joining the battle. In a speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association last Friday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) noted that the GOP conference plans to file its own amicus brief in coming weeks:
Thanks to President Reagan, Ed Meese, and others who 30 years ago began reviving principled constitutionalism, we are equipped to fight this battle today. No longer do our fellow citizens simply assume that the Constitution means whatever judges say it means. No longer do the political ends always justify the constitutional means. This week, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and I circulated an amicus brief for Senators to sign that will be filed in the 11th Circuit as they consider this issue. Thirty-two senators signed a similar brief that we filed in the district court last year and, after last November’s election, I hope that more Senators will be with us on appeal.