A federal judge’s decision that the Obama administration's healthcare overhaul is unconstitutional is “huge,” Fox News host Greta Van Susteren says. The main question that remains after the decision in Monday is whether the case will have to wade through appellate courts before its eventual airing before the U.S. Supreme Court, said Van Susteren, who is a trial lawyer herself.
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Fox News' Greta Van Susteren |
It was the first time a federal judge declared the entire law unconstitutional, saying that the mandate requiring every American to purchase healthcare cannot be severed from the bill, because it does not contain a severability clause.
Speaking on “Your World,” Van Susteren said: “This is absolutely huge. It is momentum. The judge went through every single argument on both sides to make this an airtight decision.”
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson accepted without trial the argument that the new law violates people's rights by forcing them to buy health insurance by 2014 or face penalties, siding with 26 states that sued to block it.
“Now the question is who is going to drag his or her feet. Is it going to be the states or the Feds because this is going to go to the Supreme Court,” Van Susteren said. “And they can either do this wild-and-crazy appellate dance, and spend months and months going through appeals court.”
Van Susteren also said not putting a severability clause in Obamacare, which would have allowed the mandate to be removed, while the rest of the law stood, was “so stupid.”
“With all due respect, any idiot knows to put a severity clause in a statute. This is not hugely sophisticated stuff,” said Van Susteren, who also hosts Fox News’ “On The Record.”
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