In the latest volley in the individual insurance mandate lawsuits, a Ninth Circuit court dismissed challenges to the reform measure on the same day that a 11th Circuit court ruled against the law.
A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel on Friday dismissed complaints brought by former California legislator Steven Baldwin and nonprofit group the Pacific Justice Institute on the grounds that they had not alleged any actual injury.
Baldwin and PJI sued in May 2010 seeking an injunction preventing enforcement of the health reform law requiring individuals to purchase and maintain health insurance or face a penalty, Law360.com reported.
"Neither Baldwin nor the institute has shown injury in fact, or a genuine threat of prosecution, sufficient to give them standing or make their challenge justiciable," the panel decided. The suit was previously dismissed by a district court judge in August 2010
Meanwhile that day, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled against the insurance mandate in a split 2 to 1 decision that represented the biggest defeat for the law to date.
The ruling decision wrote that the individual insurance mandate "represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority," striking down the measure as an overstep of Congressional power.
Challengers to the law took their complaints to the Supreme Court for the first time late last month, lead by the Thomas More Law Center, a Michigan-based firm generally focused on promoting religious freedom for Christians.
