Federal Judge in Florida tells States to Continue with Health Overhaul

The same federal judge that ruled that President Obama’s health care law was unconstitutional, Judge Roger Vinson, has now made another ruling in Pensacola, Florida on Thursday, March 3^rd, 2011.  He says that states must continue to implement the health care overhaul … for now.

The health care law has been ruled against by one other judge in Virginia as well, but two other federal judges have upheld it.  Because of this division, this issue will most likely eventually end up going to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Vinson made this new 20 page ruling after receiving a request from administration attorneys that wanted to make sure that Florida and 25 additional states followed this law until the challenge to it was resolved in court.

Vinson explained, “It would be extremely disruptive and cause significant uncertainty” to stop implementation of the new law. He also wrote that if an appeal is not made by the federal government in seven days, then the law can be considered invalid by the states.

Vinson originally made the ruling that the new health care law was unconstitutional in January.  He stated that lawmakers don’t have the power give a penalty to people for not doing something.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department said that the government would appeal without delay and get an expedited review.