Obamacare: prochaine étape la Cour suprême? (The New Republic)

"On Friday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in the case against the Affordable Care Act. It's not the decision that defenders of the law wanted.

Two of the three judges found that the individual mandate -- that is, the requirement that Americans of means contribute to the costs of health care, either by obtaining insurance or paying a fee to the government -- is unconstitutional. The judges declined to invalidate the entire law, as a lower court judge in Florida had done. But they did not mince words about the mandate, saying that it "is unprecedented, lacks cognizable limits, and imperils our federalist structure."

I strongly disagree, as regular TNR readers know. The decision is more than 300 pages long, so I don't want to comment on it substantively without reading it throughly and consulting some scholars. One key issue, though, is worth addressing now. Frank Hull is one of the two judges who signed this decision. And she took her seat on the bench in 1997, after Bill Clinton appointed her. That makes her the first Democratic appointee, at any level, to rule against the individual mandate.

But does that history belie her ideological predisposition? Ian Millhiser, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, thinks so. Via e-mail, he writes:

Although Frank Hull’s nomination to the 11th Circuit has Bill Clinton’s name on it, she got Clinton’s nod because the GOP-controlled Senate would not confirm a progressive or even centrist judge to this seat, and Clinton decided it was better to appoint a very conservative judge than leave this judgeship vacant. Since joining the court, Hull has consistently restricted individual rights and favors prosecutors over criminal defendants. We now know that she also holds a very radical view of Congress’ enumerated powers. That is unfortunate, but it also places her well to the right of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kennedy."

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/93584/eleventh-circuit-judge-hull-strike-down-affordable-care-act-mandate