WASHINGTON ? Yesterday a federal appeals court in Virginia rejected a pair of challenges to the health-care reform law, ?providing a boost to the Obama administration after it lost a high-profile case last month,? writes The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reports that in one ruling, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a December 2010 trial-court decision that struck down the health-care law's requirement that individuals must provide insurance or pay a penalty.
In a second decision, the court ruled 2-1 that the insurance-mandate penalties ?amounted to a type of tax that can only be challenged after it is collected, rather than before,? notes WSJ.
Karen Harned, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Legal Center, commented that the decision, while disappointing, isn?t a surprise.
?It was obvious to all who heard the Fourth Circuit oral argument that the plaintiffs faced an uphill battle,? she said, adding, ?Given the resulting split decisions among appeals courts, it is now time for the Obama administration to seek immediate review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The health-care law is already imposing unsustainable costs on the states and businesses. The American people deserve some certainty; a final decision in this case from the highest court in the land should happen as quickly as possible.? ??
NFIB is part of a lawsuit brought by 26 states against the health-care law that is currently pending in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. ?
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