BDF: "Individual Mandate" Found Unconstitutional by 11th Circuit

Aug. 12, 2011 - PRLog -- A federal appeals court has ruled that the federal healthcare reform’s individual mandate is unconstitutional, calling it "an unprecedented exercise of congressional power.”  The Eleventh Circuit decision creates a split in the Circuits that makes a U.S. Supreme Court review very likely. Bioethics Defense Fund attorneys Nikolas Nikas and Dorinda Bordlee are currently reviewing the 304-page opinion which they have posted on the BDF website.

In May, Bioethics Defense Fund filed an amicus brief on behalf of three medical associations presenting the courts for the first time with an additional reason why the so-called Obamacare Act is unconstitutional: its individual mandate also imposes and “abortion premium mandate” that violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

The BDF amicus brief was filed in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the twenty-six State Attorneys General, on behalf of the Catholic Medical Association, Christian Medical and Dental Association, and Medical Students for Life.

An analysis of the case will soon be available at our "Obamacare in Court" page.  You can now read the full 11th Circuit opinion and the BDF "abortion mandate" brief at: http://www.BDFund.org/ObamacareinCourt.

# # #

Bioethics Defense Fund is a public-interest legal organization whose mission is to defend human life through strategic legislation, litigation, and public education on issues involving abortion, human embryo experimentation, and euthanasia. Learn more at our website, http://www.BDFund.org