Judge Orders Hold on Health Bill Ruling
Politico reports:
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled Thursday that implementation of the health law can proceed — but he gave the Obama administration just seven days to file an appeal.
Vinson issued a stay of his own Jan. 31 ruling that declared the entire health care reform law unconstitutional. He chastised the government for not interpreting that ruling as an immediate injunction to stop implementing the new law.
But in a twist, he said he interpreted the Justice Department’s request for clarity as a motion to stay, which he granted.
“Because the defendants have stated that they intend to file a subsequent motion to stay if I were to ‘clarify’ that I had intended my declaratory judgment to have immediate injunction-like effect (which I just did), I will save time in this time-is-of-the-essence case by treating the motion to clarify as one requesting a stay as well,” Vinson said.
Vinson criticized the Justice Department for not following normal procedure and requesting a stay.
“It was not expected that they would effectively ignore the order and declaratory judgment for two and one-half weeks, continue to implement the Act, and only then file a belated motion to 'clarify,'” Vinson wrote.
Vinson is trying to push the government into quickly resolving the case, requiring them to file an expedited appeal to the 11th Circuit or Supreme Court. In his ruling, Vinson repeated what he has said previously — that “the citizens of this country have an interest in having this case resolved as soon as practically possible.”
“That was nearly eleven months ago,” he wrote. “In the time since, the battle lines have been drawn, the relevant case law marshaled, and the legal arguments refined. Almost everyone agrees that the constitutionality of the Act is an issue that will ultimately have to be decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. It is very important to everyone in this country that this case move forward.”
Vinson’s actions mean the legal cloud over nationwide efforts to implement the law’s varied and complex requirements — from the establishment of state health exchanges to plans for Medicaid expansion and a new wave of consumer protections in the insurance market — is likely to remain for a while.
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