Obama Health Care Lawsuit Rejected By U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler

[Luke Hodiak]

Obama Health Care Lawsuit Rejected By U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler



NEDRA PICKLER   02/22/11 08:05 PM

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit claiming that President Barack Obama's requirement that all Americans have health insurance violates the religious freedom of those who rely on God to protect them.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler in Washington dismissed a lawsuit filed by the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian legal group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, on behalf of five Americans who can afford health insurance but have chosen for years not to buy it.

The case was one of several lawsuits filed against Obama's requirement that Americans either buy health insurance or pay a penalty, beginning in 2014. Kessler is the third Democratic-appointed judge to dismiss a challenge, while two Republican-appointed judges have ruled part or all of the law unconstitutional. Kessler wrote that the Supreme Court will need to settle the constitutional issues.

Three of the plaintiffs – Margaret Peggy Lee Mead of Hillsborough, N.C., Charles Edward Lee of San Antonio and Susan Seven-Sky of West Harrison, N.Y. – are Christians who said they want to refuse all medical services for the rest of their lives because they believe God will heal their afflictions. They say being forced to buy insurance would conflict with their faith because they believe doing so would indicate they need "a backup plan and (are) not really sure whether God will, in fact, provide," the lawsuit said.

The two other plaintiffs – Kenneth Ruffo of San Antonio and Gina Rodriguez of Plano, Texas – have a holistic approach to medical care and prefer to pay for their health services out of pocket, in part because insurance often doesn't cover their chosen methods of healing.

The lawsuit argued that Congress does not have the power under the Constitution to require health care purchases and that the mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.

Kessler rejected both arguments and ruled that Congress has the right to regulate health care spending under the Commerce Clause and that the individual mandate must be viewed not as a stand-alone reform but as an essential part of the law Obama signed 11 months ago aimed at reducing overall costs. She also said that anyone who objects to having health care for religious reasons can choose to pay the penalty instead – as the lawsuit said all five plaintiffs plan to do.

Kessler also expressed doubts that they can really determine whether they will never require health care. "Individuals like plaintiffs who allege now that they will refuse medical services in the future may well find their way into the health care market when they face the reality of illness or injury," she wrote.

Judges George Steeh of Michigan and Norman Moon of Virginia – like Kessler, they were nominated to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton – dismissed suits against the individual mandate last fall. George W. Bush-appointed Henry Hudson in Virginia ruled the insurance purchase requirement unconstitutional in December, while Ronald Reagan appointee Roger Vinson in Florida ruled the entire health care reform act unconstitutional last month.


The Justice Department, which has been defending the law in court, noted that the law has now been upheld more times than not.

"We welcome this ruling, which marks the third time a court has reviewed the Affordable Care Act on the merits and upheld it as constitutional," said spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler. "This court found – as two others have previously – that the minimum coverage provision of the statute was a reasonable measure for Congress to take in reforming our health care system."

[Volitzer]

1st off the Federal Government can't require you to do anything, this is a states' rights issue.

2nd Obama isn't a US citizen, why doesn't this idiot Judge Gladys Kessler read the 'natural born' clause in the US Constitiution and make a ruling on that.

Simple the Federal Judicial Branch has sold out to the NWO.

[Tom Hebert]

This is good news.  It looks like universal health care is here to stay.

America has finally joined the ranks of other civilized nations.

[Volitzer]

The national government can pass all the laws they want and the judicial branch can rule in their favor all they want.  However it is the states that have to go along with it or it, like the North American Union, will fail.

[Tom Hebert]

Wishful thinking.

[Volitzer]

Yeah on yours and the Globalists end.

How I love that Florida is leading the way on this.  New York State would just bend over and accept anything un-Constitutional the Feds put out.  Nice to live in a state with a Constitutional back-bone.

Where do you live Tom ?

[Jennifer Murdoch]

1st off the Federal Government can't require you to do anything, this is a states' rights issue.

The hell they can't, Federal law always trumps state laws, didn't you know that?

2nd Obama isn't a US citizen, why doesn't this idiot Judge Gladys Kessler read the 'natural born' clause in the US Constitiution and make a ruling on that.

He's only not a U.S. citizen when it comes to crazy people, so I don't think too many people are worried about that.

[Volitzer]

1st off the Federal Government can't require you to do anything, this is a states' rights issue.

The hell they can't, Federal law always trumps state laws, didn't you know that?

You had better read the US Constitution says about concurrent powers between the national and the state governments.  If the National Government gets too corrupt the states can dissolve the national government and re-establish it a new.

THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT DOES NOT TRUMP THE STATES !!!!

Concurrent powers are powers that are shared by the state and the federal government. They may be exercised simultaneously within the same territory and in relation to the same body of citizens. These powers are commonly found in the United States of America and many other Federalist Nations. They are contrasted with reserved powers. Some of the concurrent powers enjoyed by both the federal and state governments are; the power to tax, make roads, protect the environment, create lower courts and borrow money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concurrent_powers

Florida Courts ruled Obamacare un-Constitutional and has every right to do so.  That and Florida is under no obligation to enact it with its 10th Amendment Rights. 

2nd Obama isn't a US citizen, why doesn't this idiot Judge Gladys Kessler read the 'natural born' clause in the US Constitiution and make a ruling on that.

He's only not a U.S. citizen when it comes to crazy people, so I don't think too many people are worried about that.

He's never been a US citizen or he would have cleared it up with a real birth certificate.  Not the COLB forgery that passes for proof among gulliberals.