PLF asks full DC Circuit Court to hear Obamacare challenge

October 06, 2014 | By PAUL BEARD

Today, Pacific Legal Foundation attorneys filed a petition for rehearing en banc, asking the full U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to hear client Matt Sissel’s “Origination Clause” challenge to the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare). The petition comes after an adverse ruling by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit this past July.

PLF’s lawsuit targets Obamacare’s tax on those Americans who do not buy a government-approved health insurance plan, on the grounds that it was introduced and passed in the Senate, not in the House of Representatives, as required by Article 1, Section 7, of the Constitution (the Origination Clause).  The entire D.C. Circuit Court should re-hear the appeal to correct the panel’s decision, which conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court and Circuit Court precedents.  But whatever the outcome of the rehearing petition, the case is sure to make it to the U.S. Supreme Court on a petition for writ of certiorari in the coming months.