ObamaCare has been ruled unconstitutional by Judge Vinson in Florida. This is the big lawsuit by the states, including Colorado, so it's Big F-ing Deal™. Heritage has a good summary, if you are short on time. Melissa Clouthier has a more detailed look at the ruling over at Liberty Pundits.
What makes this ruling interesting compared to the previous ruling is that Judge Vinson jumped on the lack of a severability clause and struck down the entire law. That is, of course, what the DOJ was arguing, i.e. because the individual mandate was "necessary and proper" in order to fulfill all of the other parts, it was Constitutional. Well, it works both ways. If the mandate is not Constitutional then everything else dies with it.
Score one for the good guys but the game's not over. Allahpundit makes that point a very well.
A nice win, if only because it’s fun to watch the left sweat, but as we’ve discussed before, these lower-court decisions are virtually meaningless. There’s no question that the Supreme Court will eventually take this matter up, and given how profound the constitutional objection to the mandate is, there’s no chance that they’ll let “deference” to lower-court rulings shape their opinion on the matter. What we’re doing with these district court rulings — which now stand evenly split on ObamaCare, two finding it constitutional and two not — is going through the procedural motions until the Supremes get down to business. The only bit of significance these decisions might have is that they may move the Overton window of possible outcomes in Anthony Kennedy’s mind. After O-Care was passed, I remember some constitutional law experts citing the Court’s liberal Commerce Clause jurisprudence and claiming that they’d probably uphold it on something like an 8-1 vote. That seems impossible now; I’d bet 6-3 at worst, with a very fair chance of a 5-4 win for conservatives. The more anti-ObamaCare lower court rulings there are, the more political cover Kennedy has to vote with the conservative wing of the Court if he’s so inclined. If.
Still, it's a good win. With all 47 Republican senators signed on as sponsors of the repeal bill, this places even more pressure on Harry Reid to let a vote happen. Of course, even if it passes the Senate, Obama will veto it before the ink's dry.
There's still a long way to go. Hang in there and we'll kill this blatant attempt at government control.
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