Judge allows healthcare lawsuit to proceed
A U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson on Thursday allowed portions of the Obama administration's health care overhaul to be challenged in court.
Florida Attorney General, Bill McCollum, filed the lawsuit just minutes after President Barack Obama signed the 10-year, $938 billion health care bill into law in March.
According to prosecutors’ arguments, the provision in the new health care bill that requires individuals to have health insurance or be penalized through taxes as expanding states' Medicaid programs is unconstitutional.
Vinson was earlier asked by the Obama administration to dismiss the entire lawsuit, saying the federal government can require that citizens buy health insurance or face tax penalties under its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.
The administrations coverage mandate is set to take effect in 2014, and people who fail to obtain minimum coverage by 2016 would face a tax penalty of about $700 annually.
The ruling was praised by McCollum adding that it is "the first step to having the individual mandate declared unconstitutional and upholding state sovereignty in our federal system".