VA AG wants immediate Supreme Court review of healthcare challenge

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said Thursday that Virginia will seek an immediate U.S. Supreme Court review of the state’s constitutional challenge to Obamacare, bypassing the appellate court, although legal experts say that is highly unlikely to happen. In December, a US District Court Judge in Virginia ruled that the healthcare reform bill’s individual mandate requiring Americans to buy healthcare insurance is unconstitutional. Meanwhile, the federal government appealed and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear the case in May.

And just this week, federal Judge Roger Vinson in Florida, also ruled the mandate unconstitutional in a suit that 26 states had joined. In two other cases, federal judges have found the law constitutional.

Cuccinelli said: “Given the uncertainty caused by the divergent rulings of the various district courts on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, we feel that it is necessary to seek resolution of this issue as quickly as possible.”

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Rule 11 of U.S. Supreme Court procedure allows parties to skip lower courts and ask for immediate Supreme Court review. But these requests are only granted by the courts only upon a showing that the case is of such imperative public importance as to justify deviation from normal appellate practice and to require immediate determination in this Court.

A spokeswoman for the DOJ said its lawyers feel the case should be heard first in an appellate court.

“The department continues to believe this case should follow the ordinary course of allowing the court of appeals to hear it first so the issues and arguments concerning the Affordable Care Act can be fully developed before the Supreme Court decides whether to consider it,” said spokeswoman Tracy Schamler.

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So far, the Obama Administration has been satisfied in allowing the appeals process to take its course, and has appealed both the Virginia and Florida cases. And experts say it’s unlikely that the high court will hear the case until they’ve had the chance to review all opinions of the lower courts. Schamler was also quick to point out that the mandate doesn’t go into effect until 2014, so there is time for the appeals process to hit the courts.