Another federal judge rules health reform law is unconstitutional

It’s all but guaranteed now – there will be a battle in the Supreme Court over the constitutionality of the healthcare reform law.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled the healthcare reform law unconstitutional in Florida on Monday. Vinson dismissed the “individual mandate,” which would require most Americans to purchase health insurance by 2014 or pay penalties.
In total, 26 states filed the lawsuit against the reform law and Vinson gave a big vote of confidence to their cause.
A recent CNN report stated that as part of his ruling, Vinson wrote, “I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate.”
He then went on to state, “Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void.”
What’s next?
Vinson joins Henry Hudson, a federal judge in Virginia, who last month also struck down the healthcare reform “individual mandate” as unconstitutional.
However, unlike Hudson, Vinson proceeded to strike down the rest of the law — not just the “individual mandate.”
Prior to those rulings, two other federal courts — one in Virginia and Michigan — ruled that the mandate is constitutional.
The split rulings virtually ensure the Supreme Court will take up the issue, although it could take as much as two years for that to happen.
The cases will go through separate federal appeals courts first. An appeal of Hudson’s ruling and the decision in Virginia to uphold the law are slated to go before a Richmond federal appeals court in May.
The states involved in the suit over which Vinson preceded: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.