Guess who's backtracking now?
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/147283-judge-grants-stay-of-decision-striking-down-health-lawA federal judge who struck down the entire healthcare reform law issued a stay of his ruling to give the Obama administration seven days to file an expedited appeal.
The administration asked U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson for a clarification of his Jan. 31 ruling after some states effectively declared the health law dead in light of the ruling.
Vinson's ruling allows the administration to continue implementation of the healthcare law while taking their appeal to the next level.
Vinson said the declaratory judgment in favor of the 26 states and National Federation of Independent Business who challenged the law was intended to be “the functional equivalent of an injunction.” However, the administration said that Vinson never addressed in his decision how the law should be stopped.
In his clarification, Vinson criticized the administration for continuing to implement the law while delaying its request for a stay of the decision.
It was not expected that it would effectively ignore the order and declaratory judgment for two and a half weeks, continue to implement the act, and then file a belated motion to “clarify,” Vinson wrote.
Vinson sympathized with the administration’s argument that halting the law would potentially disrupt hundreds of other provisions not related to the individual mandate. Some have already gone into effect, and many more will become effective before the mandate takes hold in 2014.
Vinson, a Reagan appointee, became the first federal judge to strike down the entire healthcare overhaul on Jan. 31, when he found that the law’s requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional and cannot be severed from the rest of the law.
