Baker Hostetler Washington, D.C. partner David B. Rivkin Jr. was quoted in the article, “Judge Rejects Health Law,” which appeared in The Wall Street Journal on February 3, 2011.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled that Congress violated the Constitution by requiring Americans to buy insurance as part of the health overhaul passed last year. The ruling clashes with the Obama administration’s authority to carry out the law to expand insurance to 32 million Americans.
David Rivkin, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the ruling meant the 26 states challenging the law must halt implementation of pieces of the legislation that apply to states and certain small businesses represented by the plaintiffs.
Three previous decisions on the health care law have been split.