MEREDITH VIEIRA, co-host:
So is
President Obama
's
health care
plan in jeopardy or not? As
Matt
mentioned, a
federal judge
has now found part of it unconstitutional.
NBC
's justice correspondent,
Pete Williams
, has more on that.
Pete
, good morning.
PETE WILLIAMS reporting:
Meredith
, good morning. One of the things that makes this noteworthy is that this is the first time a
federal judge
has ruled that the key part of the
Obama
health care
law, the requirement that all Americans buy
health insurance
, is unconstitutional, so now there's sure to be a legal battle all the way to the
Supreme Court
. The
Justice Department
is likely to appeal the ruling which echoed a theme of
tea party activists and conservatives:
The Congress
has no power to order everyone to buy insurance.
Senator ORRIN HATCH (Republican, Utah):
People still have the right to personal decisions. Whether they buy
health insurance
or they don't buy
health insurance
, they should not have it imposed upon them by government.
WILLIAMS:
Ruling on a challenge from the state of
Virginia
,
federal judge
Henry Hudson
said that while the "Constitution gives
Congress
broad power to regulate economic activity, it has no power to regulate inactivity," such as declining to buy insurance.
Congress
, he concluded, has "no authority to compel anyone to enter the stream of commerce and buy something." The
Obama
administration argued that no one stays entirely out of the
health care
economy, eventually getting care from somewhere like an emergency room. And the president told
NBC
affiliate
WFLA
that with more than two dozen legal challenges already in the courts, the battle is far from over.
President BARACK OBAMA:
Keep in mind, this is one ruling by one
federal district court
. We've already had two
federal district courts
that have ruled that this is definitely constitutional.
WILLIAMS:
The judge decided not to block the mandatory insurance requirement for now because he said the law doesn't take effect for a few more years so there's time for the courts to decide who's right,
Meredith
.
VIEIRA:
All right,
Pete Williams
,
thank you very much
.
