Family Research Council Files Amicus Brief in 11th Circuit Obama Health Care Court Case

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May 12, 2011, 11:11 ET

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Family Research Council filed an amicus brief yesterday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in the multistate 2010 healthcare lawsuit.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080930/FRCLOGO)

This is the next step following the January ruling by Federal District Judge Roger Vinson that the law is unconstitutional. In his opinion in January, Judge Vinson twice quoted FRC Special Counsel Ken Klukowski, J.D., and wrote that he borrowed "heavily" from FRC's amicus brief, noting that the brief "quite cogently and effectively sets forth the applicable standard and governing analysis of severability."

Klukowski authored FRC's brief, which was the only amicus brief in the case on the district level focusing exclusively on how the individual mandate cannot be severed from the law.

Klukowski, who also serves as Director of FRC's Center for Religious Liberty, made the following comments:

"While the individual mandate requiring Americans to purchase health insurance is what makes the 2010 healthcare law unconstitutional, it is the law's lack of a severability clause that truly is the final straw. As FRC has noted in previous amicus briefs in the Florida multistate lawsuit and in Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's lawsuit, it is the law's lack of a 'severability clause' that means the entire law must be struck down, not simply the individual mandate.

"Nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government empowered to order Americans to spend their own money to purchase health insurance. FRC has noted this in the past, and we once again note it in this brief. This is a fact that has been upheld in this case on the district court level, and we hope that the Eleventh Circuit will see this as well.

"At the same time, we urge Congress to again work to repeal this unconstitutional law in its entirety. Only a complete repeal will save Americans from the fiscal and regulatory burden that this overreaching and intrusive law would put on them and the companies they work for," Klukowski concluded.

To read the amicus brief, click here: http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF11E44.pdf

SOURCE Family Research Council