For Immediate Release:                                                           Contact:  Elise Marsh

August 3, 2010                                                                                       703-209-3787

Delegate Barbara Comstock Applauds Health Care Ruling

Virginia’s Challenge of Constitutionality of Health Care Act to Proceed

(McLEAN – August 2, 2010) - Yesterday, Judge Henry Hudson of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied the federal government’s motion to dismiss Virginia’s challenge to the constitutionality of the mandatory health insurance purchase requirement in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

 Delegate Barbara Comstock issued the following statement in response to this ruling:

“Judge Hudson’s ruling, to allow Virginia’s constitutional challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, now allows this case to move forward on the merits. The requirement imposed in this federal legislation, that all Americans in every state must purchase health insurance or face a penalty, is not consistent with the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.  It is also inconsistent with the expressed will of the representatives of the Commonwealth of Virginia who, on a broad, bipartisan basis, supported the passage of the Health Care Freedom Act this year.  

“As Judge Hudson wrote:  ‘While this case raises a host of complex constitutional issues, all seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate – and tax – a citizen’s decision not to participate in interstate commerce.  Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor any circuit court of appeals has squarely addressed this issue.’

“The Attorney General brought forward a specific and narrowly tailored case.  Now the issue can appropriately get a full hearing in our courts.”