A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected Virginia’s challenge to President Obama’s health care law, saying in a ruling that the state doesn’t have a right to bring a lawsuit.
The unanimous decision from the three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a lower court’s decision to declare the law unconstitutional and is the second appellate court ruling in favor of the government’s right to require individuals to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
But the court on Thursday stopped short of ruling whether the individual mandate in the health care law is constitutional; it strictly examined Virginia’s right to sue.
The Supreme Court will likely have the final say on the health care law after more than 30 lawsuits were filed and contradictory rulings were issued from appellate courts in other parts of the country. Last month, an appeals court in Atlanta ruled against the law, saying the provision to buy health care insurance is unconstitutional. But an appeals court in Cincinnati has upheld the law.
Virginia filed its lawsuit in March 2010, the same day that Obama signed the legislation. The following day, the state passed its own law known as the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act (VHCFA), declaring that individuals cannot be forced to buy health insurance and sued on that basis.
But the court ruled Thursday that the VHCFA does not create the kind of conflict that allows for a challenge in federal court.
“The individual mandate in the health care law does not affect Virginia’s ability to enforce VHCFA,” the court opined. “Rather, the Constitution itself withholds from Virginia the power to enforce VHCFA against the federal government.”
All three judges on the Virginia panel were appointed by Democratic presidents — two by Obama and one by Bill Clinton.
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