This afternoon, Roger Vinson, a federal judge in Pensacola, Florida, has ruled that the individual mandate portion of the federal health care law, passed in March of last year, is unconstitutional. In a departure from a similar ruling in Virginia, Judge Vinson held that the individual mandate portion is "not severable' from the law in its entirety. Hence, he decided that the whole of ObamaCare is unconstitutional, which no other ruling had yet concluded.
This ruling supports the 26 state attorneys general--including Attorney General Derek Schmidt of Kansas--who challenged the law. Pompeo released the following statement:
"Today's decisive ruling by Judge Vinson is a victory for 26 states -- including Kansas -- who took issue with the constitutionality of ObamaCare. It is also a victory for all Americans, who will benefit from doing away with this costly and misguided piece of legislation. From the start, I've said this law was unconstitutional and that this job-destroying policy was the wrong direction for Kansas and the entire country.
"It was an unprecedented and intolerable power grab for the government to try to force private citizens to purchase health care products and services. In America, the decision as to when, whether, and from whom to purchase health care needs to be between the patient and the doctor. Government has no business telling individual patients what they must or may not buy.
"I applaud this decision and I look forward to continuing to work on a viable replacement for ObamaCare during this Congress," said Pompeo.
The House of Representatives already voted to repeal ObamaCare earlier this month. Next, they plan to continue to follow through on their promise to defund this unconstitutional law.