A grim start to Cuccinelli’s health care lawsuit
By Norman Leahy | Tuesday, May 10th, 2011 | Policy, VirginiaWant to know how the Attorney General will fare before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals? Here’s a good clue:
A three-judge federal appeals panel comprised of two Obama nominees and a Clinton nominee will hear arguments later this morning in two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the national health care law.
The makeup of the U.S. Fourth Circuit of Appeals panel is crucial, because in lower court rulings so far, Democratic judges have upheld the law while Republican judges have declared it unconstitutional.
The judges on the panel will be Obama nominees James A. Wynn, Jr and Andre M. Davis, who will sit on the panel along with Clinton nominee Diana Gribbon Motz.
According to the Fourth Circuit, the panel is chosen by “a computer program designed to achieve total random selection.”
Random is good…except when the results is a murderer’s row that will likely take great joy in swatting Cuccinelli’s case out of the park.
(Cross-posted at Score Radio Network)
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About the author
Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Examiner contributor.









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7 Responses to "A grim start to Cuccinelli’s health care lawsuit"
Totally agree, but one is led to believe that the appellate court will ultimately contradict the lower court ruling – which is a perfect setup to a SCOTUS hearing.
We shall see.
These judicial appointments are more one-sided than redistricting.
The issue of leftist judges making policy deserves its own thread. It certainly has been ignored too long by conservatives.
Politically however, I think there has been a danger in relying on the courts to relieve the Repub pols from exerting themselves. What real difference does it make if Obamacare is or is not Constitutional? Either way, it will bankrupt the country or make a person’s level of health care a whim or worse of partisan politicians (eg Sebelius) or ideologues (eg Ezekiel Emanuel).
What difference will it make for SCOTUS to invalidate the individual mandate if Obama is re-elected? What difference will it make if SCOTUS oks the bill and a conservative Repub is elected President?
The only way to guarantee Supreme Court involvement in a matter is if there are conflicting judgements at the highest levels beneath them.
Valentinus is a real hoot; as if conservative judges are not activists as well. Had they not been, we would have enjoyed a popularly elected President and would not have had to endure the mistakes of a Bush Presidency.
I believe both Wynn and Davis were appointed to vacancies that the Bush administration failed to fill. It is incomprehensible that the Bush administration left any vacancies on the Fourth Circuit.
Incomprehensible?? Really…Just add those two unfilled positions to the long list of Bush administration failures.
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