Obamacare Hearing In 11th Circuit Court Of Appeals

I don't know if you were aware or not, but a three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held hearings today on the government's appeal of Florida Judge Vinson's ruling that overturned Obamacare. Here is what happened today.
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/the-obamacare-lawsuit-from-the-courtroom-in-atlanta/

In the most important appeal of the Obamacare constitutional saga, today was the best day yet for individual freedom. The government’s lawyer, Neal Katyal, spent most of the hearing on the ropes, with the judicial panel extremely cautious not to extend federal power beyond its present outer limits of regulating economic activity that has a substantial aggregate effect on interstate commerce.

This legal process is not an academic exercise to map the precise contours of the Commerce Clause or Necessary and Proper Clause — or even to vindicate our commitment to federalism or judicial review. No, all of these worthy endeavors are just means to achieve the goal of maximizing human freedom and flourishing. Indeed, that is the very reason the government exists in the first place.

And the 11th Circuit judges saw that. Countless times, Judges Dubina and Marcus demanded that the government articulate constitutional limiting principles to the power it asserted. And countless times they pointed out that never in history has Congress tried to compel people to engage in commerce as a means of regulating commerce. Even Judge Hull, reputed to be the most liberal member of the panel, conducted a withering cross-examination to establish that the individual mandate didn’t help that many people get affordable care, that the majority of people currently without coverage would be exempt from the requirement (presumably due to their income level).

In short, while we should never read too much into an oral argument, I’m more optimistic about this case now than any other.

You can seldom predict with certainty what the ultimate ruling will be based upon the tone of the questions in the hearings, but this is a bit encouraging. The onus is on the government to justify their actions and prove those actions are constitutional, and it seems that's where these judges placed the onus.

It'll take a few months, but we'll get their ruling eventually. Remember that they not only have to decide if Vinson was correct in his ruling that the individual mandate violates the Constitution, but they also have to decide if he was correct in throwing out the entire law.

Should be interesting.

UPDATE: Here's another early article on the hearing.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56544.html

The judge’s questions were mixed enough to give encouragement to both sides in the oral arguments in the multistate lawsuit, the most significant of the legal challenges against Obama’s health care overhaul.