Breaking: Vinson Issues Stay on His Decision

03/03/11

By Hadley Heath

Judge Roger Vinson has issued a stay on his own January-31 ruling that ObamaCare is unconstitutional.  This means that implementation of the law can and will continue.  He gives the federal government seven days to file for appeal.

The federal government had entered a "Motion to Clarify" after Vinson ruled that the individual mandate (and therefore the rest of the unseverable law) was unconstitutional and void. 

Politico reports:

But in a twist, he said he interpreted the Justice Department’s request for clarity as a motion to stay, which he granted.

“Because the defendants have stated that they intend to file a subsequent motion to stay if I were to ‘clarify’ that I had intended my declaratory judgment to have immediate injunction-like effect (which I just did), I will save time in this time-is-of-the-essence case by treating the motion to clarify as one requesting a stay as well,” Vinson said.

Vinson criticized the Justice Department for not following normal procedure and requesting a stay.

“It was not expected that they would effectively ignore the order and declaratory judgment for two and one-half weeks, continue to implement the Act, and only then file a belated motion to 'clarify,'” Vinson wrote.

Ouch.  Vinson looks like the only grown-up here.  This reminds me of the time Judge Henry Hudson told the defendants that they cannot use an Alice-in-Wonderland argument. 

Essentially, the most important outcome of this stay is that the federal government will have to file its appeal soon.  Soon, as in, within the week.  Stay tuned to HealthCareLawsuits.org for developments!

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