Obamacare Declared Void in Northern District of Florida

Justice Roger Vinson issued a decision today for the Northern District of Florida declaring the individual mandate unconstitutional and rendering the entire Act void.

As expected, the individual mandate was ruled as an unconstitutional expansion of the Commerce Clause. The justification under the Necessary and Proper Clause fails two of the five tests from Comstock in that "A statute mandating that everyone purchase a product from a private company or be penalized (merely by virtue of being alive and a lawful citizen) is not a 'modest' addition to federal involvement in the national health care market, nor is it 'narrow [in] scope.'"

Finally, the judge declares the entire Act void due to the lack of a severability clause.

The lack of a severability clause in this case is significant because one had been included in an earlier version of the Act, but it was removed in the bill that subsequently became law. "Where Congress includes [particular] language in an earlier version of a bill but deletes it prior to enactment, it may be presumed that the [omitted provision] was not intended." Russello v. United States, 464 U.S. 16,23-24, 104 S. Ct. 296, 78 L. Ed. 2d 17 (1983). In other words, the severability clause was intentionally left out of the Act.

...and...

Congress’ failure to include aseverability clause in the Act (or, more accurately, its decision to not include one that had been included earlier) can be viewed as strong evidence that Congress recognized the Act could not operate as intended without the individual mandate.

You can read the ruling below:

Vinson Ruling