Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a legal brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit today, urging it to strike down the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It was part of a legal action taken by a coalition of 26 states.
“The individual mandate poses a significant threat to individual liberty,” Attorney General Abbott said in a press release. “By requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance, Congress is violating the U.S. Constitution. The federal government simply does not—and cannot—have that power.”
You can read the legal document here.
The Associated Press reports that, so far, judicial rulings on the law have split along partisan lines.
So far, three federal judges, all Democratic appointees, have upheld the law. Vinson and the Virginia judge, both Republicans appointees, ruled against it. It seems certain that the broad health care challenge will be resolved only by the nation's top court, and Vinson suggested in a March ruling that the "Supreme Court may eventually be split on this issue as well."
