Heritage Foundation writer Hans von Spakovsky is reporting today that the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court appealing the 11th Circuit Obamacare decision.
With this petition, the NFIB jumped ahead of Eric Holder’s slow-moving DOJ on this case filed by 26 states and the NFIB. The NFIB is obviously not appealing the three-judge panel’s opinion about the unconstitutionality of the individual mandate. But the NFIB is appealing the portion of the panel’s decision that held that the unconstitutional individual mandate could be severed from the Obamacare legislation.
The NFIB is asking the Court to overrule this holding, since “Congress itself deemed [the mandate] ‘essential’ to the Act’s new insurance regulations.” Given that the 11th and 6th Circuits have issued “directly conflicting final judgments about the facial constitutionality of [Obamacare’s] mandate,” the case is one that the Court should obviously take up given its interest in eliminating conflicting opinions in the courts of appeal.
To read the story, click here.