Obamacare: No Severibility Clause Means Entire Law Could Fall!

Saturday, November 27, 2010
Wesley J. Smith

This story stunned me: It is SOP for legislators to put a “severability clause” into legislation, so that if part of a law is found unconstitutional, the rest of it can remain in effect. But Obamacare has no such clause. This could have the most profound consequences.

Lack of severability means the entire law could fall if the mandatory purchase requirement is found unconstitutional–as seems likely either in Virginia or Florida–and could remain enjoined pending the couple of years time it takes to make it to the Supreme Court. From the NY Times story:

Mr. Cuccinelli and the plaintiffs in the Florida case, who include attorneys general or governors from 20 states, have emphasized that Congressional bill writers did not include a “severability clause” that would explicitly protect other parts of the sprawling law if certain provisions were struck down. An earlier version of the legislation, which passed the House last November, included severability language. But that clause did not make it into the Senate version, which ultimately became law. A Democratic aide who helped write the bill characterized the omission as an oversight.

That’s one huge mistake! the rest