A panel of 4th Circuit judges tossed Virginia's ObozoCare lawsuit because, in their opinion, Virginia's law prohibiting forced insurance-purchases was formalized after ObozoCare was enacted.
Wrong.
In reality, the Virginia law was signed by Gov. McDonnell and codified on March 10, 2010. The “ceremonial” signing was held on March 24, 2010. So rather than a Virginia law seeking to invalidate an existing federal law, it was the other way around. It was a federal law seeking to invalidate an existing Virginia law.
(ObozoCare was codified on March 23, and Virginia filed suit the same day.)
Appears that the error will have the effect of reversing the decision.
HT: FrPhil
This is pretty interesting because I Googled it and found stuff all over the web suggesting that this error would invalidate the decision.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing is, apparently somebody made this up an it's gone viral.
I read the decision and you can, too!
Although it is true that the decision apparently mis-states the date of the enactment of the Virginia law (VHFCA), the dates of the federal and state laws have absolutely no bearing whatsoever in the case or the decision. The state maintained that the laws conflicted, not that its law was passed prior to the federal law.
The date is inconsequential. The court said,
the VHFCA does not confer on Virginia a sovereign interest in challenging the individual mandate. Virginia lacks standing to challenge the individual mandate because the mandate threatens no interest in the “enforceability” of the VHCFA [emphasis added]. Contrary to Virginia’s arguments, the mere existence of a state law like the VHCFA does not license a state to mount a judicial challenge to any federal statute with which the state law assertedly conflicts.
The court further said that Virginia cited a number of cases as precedent saying, The state statutes in each of these cases reflect the “exercise of [a state’s] sovereign power over individuals and entities within the relevant jurisdiction."...By contrast, the VHCFA regulates nothing and provides for the administration of no state program. Instead, it simply purports to immunize Virginia citizens from federal law. In doing so, the VHCFA reflects no exercise of “sovereign power”
Date? Who cares? Your post has simply caught the virus.