Individual Mandate now 2-1 in Courts

The blogs are alive with the news that Henry Hudson, federal judge in Virginia, has issued an opinion finding the individual mandate of the PPACA unconstitutional. Opinion in Virginia v. Sebelius is here. but the key paragraph (per the Washpo) seems to be this:

"Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market," he wrote. "In doing so, enactment of the [individual mandate] exceeds the Commerce Clause powers vested in Congress under Article I.

This is the first ruling against the health insurance reform law which passed Congress in early 2010. A federal trial judge in Michigan had previously ruled that the individual mandate is authorized by the commerce clause in Article I §8 of the Constitution. Another federal judge, this time in the Western District of Virginia, has upheld the constitutionality of the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision, aka individual mandate. That case, Liberty University v. Geithner and Virginia v. Sebelius must be reconciled by the Fourth Circuit.