Healthwatch reports:
“Lower court erred, Cuccinelli says:
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) said the federal judge who ruled in his favor against the individual mandate should have struck down the entire healthcare reform law. Cuccinelli, who is asking the Supreme Court to take his case immediately, filed a brief with the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday in case his request is rejected. The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider his fast-track request on April 15.
Lawmakers back Cuccinelli:
More than four dozen House Republicans, including Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the American Center for Law & Justice to back Virginia’s lawsuit.
“The individual mandate’s unconstitutionality requires the entire [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] to fall,” they wrote in the 4th Circuit brief. “Although an earlier version of the health care legislation contained a severability clause, the PPACA does not, and, by the government’s admission, the PPACA’s remaining provisions cannot function without the individual mandate. These two factors lead inexorably to the conclusion that Congress would not have passed the PPACA without the individual mandate.”