Judge Stays Own Ruling Against Health Care Law

It is disappointing that the law must be enacted while the government delays and delays in its effort to bring the issue before the Supreme Court. It is obvious that the Obama administration wants to get as much accomplished before the 2012 election to make it almost impossible to repeal. In any event, many billions of dollars will have been spent needlessly in the event the law is overturned by the Court or repealed by a new administration. Democrats in Wisconsin and in Washington seem to be very comfortable in ignoring the rule of law.

Excerpt: The judge, making evident his irritation with the Obama administration, sought to speed the process by conditioning the stay on the Justice Department’s pursuit of an expedited appeal, which he ordered filed within seven days.

“The sooner this issue is finally decided by the Supreme Court, the better off the entire nation will be,” wrote the judge, Roger Vinson of Federal District Court in Pensacola. “And yet, it has been more than one month from the entry of my order and judgment and still the defendants have not filed their notice of appeal.”

The stay — essentially a suspension of the judge’s order pending appeals — settles the confusion that arose after Judge Vinson ruled on Jan. 31 that a central provision of the law was unconstitutional, and that the rest of the law — the Affordable Care Act — must fall with it.

Read full NYT article here.