A Federal judge in Virginia has upheld the legality of the health care reform requirement that will require most Americans to purchase health insurance in 2014. This decision mirrors one made by a Federal judge in Michigan in a court case that was decided in late October of 2010. However, the plaintiffs in this current court case did get some victories.
The court case that was ruled on today was filed by Liberty University, a Christian school that is located in Lynchburg, Virginia. Five Virginia residents were also among the plaintiffs in this case. This group had two major objections to the health care bill. They felt that if everyone was required to pay for health insurance, that there was no protection against having the money that came from those payments being used to fund abortion coverage. The plaintiffs felt that selling insurance plans that cover abortion would violate their own freedom of religious expression.
They also felt that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution did not give the Federal government the authority to require American citizens to purchase a product, (such as health insurance). They considered this requirement to be a regulation of “inactivity”.
Judge Norman Moon dismissed the idea that the requirement to purchase health insurance was a regulation of “inactivity”. He said that if a person chooses not to buy health insurance, that person is actively making an economic decision to pay for their health care out of their own pocket. Therefore, it is not “inactivity” at all.
He also said that Liberty University failed to show how any of the money from health insurance “whether fines, fees, taxes, or the cost of the policy” would be used to fund abortion. He actually felt that the law contained strict safeguards that specifically prevent federal funds from being used on abortions. Therefore, the judge concluded, the requirement to purchase health insurance has nothing at all to do with freedom of religious expression.
This ruling did give a few victories to the plaintiffs. Judge Moon has rejected the argument by The Justice Department that individuals or states lacked the proper standing to challenge the health care reform laws. Judge Moon also rejected the argument by The Justice Department that any challenge to the health care reform laws at all were premature, since those laws have yet to take effect.
Image by Gordon Joly on Flickr