WASHINGTON - Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander M. Levin (D-MI) and Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Pete Stark (D-CA), today responded to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler of the District of Columbia, who upheld the health reform law.
Ranking Member Levin: "This is yet another ruling in favor of a health care law that is already benefiting millions of Americans. Republican efforts to repeal the law will wreak havoc on the lives of families throughout the country by taking away vital health care benefits."
Ranking Member Stark: "For Republicans keeping count, that's 3-2 in judicial rulings in favor of health reform. Despite Republicans' newfound love of judicial activism, implementation of the health reform law continues."
Judge Kessler upheld the law in her ruling last night, stating: "It is pure semantics to argue that an individual who makes a choice to forgo health insurance is not 'acting,' especially given the serious economic and health-related consequences to every individual of that choice. Making a choice is an affirmative action, whether one decides to do something or not do something. They are two sides of the same coin. To pretend otherwise is to ignore reality."
In addition to the three judges who have upheld the health reform law on its merits, over a dozen judges have dismissed suits against the law on procedural grounds. Historic laws like health reform were challenged in the courts - lower courts ruled that Social Security, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the minimum wage were unconstitutional before eventually being reversed by the Supreme Court.
