Good.

“PENSACOLA, Fla. — A federal judge said Tuesday he will likely dismiss only parts of a lawsuit by 20 states challenging the Obama administration’s health care overhaul as unconstitutional, though he didn’t specifically say what portions.

The Obama administration had asked U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson to dismiss the entire lawsuit. The states and the administration disagree over whether people should be required to have health insurance, and whether states should pay additional Medicaid costs not covered by the federal government.

The judge said he will issue a ruling by Oct. 14. The lawsuit is likely to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

If Vinson upholds the states’ challenge, he would overturn decades of law enforcing the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce, said Ian Heath Gershengorn, deputy assistant attorney general.

“This court is free to disagree with Congress’ policy judgments but it is not free to overturn 75 years of Constitutional law,” he said.”

This was expected after a federal judge in Virginia early last month likewise allowed a similar suite to go forward. That court ruled:

“Never before has the Commerce Clause and associated Necessary and Proper Clause been extended this far. “…and Contrary to preenactment representations by the Executive and Legislative branches, the [government] now argues alternatively that [the mandate that all buy insurance] is a product of the government’s power to tax for the general welfare”….”all [arguments] seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate – and tax – a citizen’s decision not to participate in interstate commerce. Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor any circuit court of appeals has squarely addressed this issue. No reported decision from any federal appellate court has extended the Commerce Clause or the Tax Clause to include the regulation of a person’s decision not to purchase a product, notwithstanding its effect on interstate commerce”.

This would provide the template in similar suites around the US and is nearly a slam dunk against Obamacare in the courts. Though likely to go to the Supremes within the next few years, I can see the Obama administration through a GOP controlled congress threatening repeal willing to strip the requirement from the law as a compromise.

They would be foolish not to do so.