Health law legal action moves to D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals

Politico Pro reports that, although this case is unlikely to be the "one" that goes to the Supreme Court, both sides have a lot at stake in the outcome: "the potential to chalk up another appeals court victory and maybe 'flip' a prominent appeals judge."

ABC News: Health Care Law: Obama Administration Returns To Court
Lawyers for the Obama administration will once again head to court to defend the health care reform law, this time from challengers who argue it violates their religious freedom. … The challenge in the D.C. circuit, Susan Seven-Sky v. Eric Holder, is brought by a conservative religious group representing four citizens. ... The religious group's members and lawyers at the American Center for Law and Justice argue in briefs, "The individual mandate substantially burdens their religious exercise by requiring them to either indefinitely maintain health insurance, which they sincerely believe would violate their religious belief that God will protect them from illness or injury, or pay annual penalties for declining to violate their faith" (DeVogue, 9/23).

Politico Pro: D.C. Court May Impact Legal Views Of Mandate
The health reform lawsuit before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday is unlikely to be the "one" that goes to the Supreme Court, but opponents and proponents of the law do have a lot at stake: the potential to chalk up another appeals court victory and maybe "flip" a prominent appeals judge. The D.C. Circuit is the fourth federal appeals court to review the constitutionality of the health care reform law's requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance. So far, one has struck the mandate, one has upheld it and one has said it can't rule until at least 2014. With two exceptions, judges have ruled along the party lines of the president that appointed them (Haberkorn, 9/23).

And in a different kind of challenge to the law, Ohio voters will on Nov. 8 consider an amendment to the state constitution aimed at undermining the health law, placing them in the ranks of voters in a number of other states with similar measures on the ballot.

Bloomberg: Ohio Joins States Letting Voters Weigh In On Obama's Health-Care Overhaul
As legal challenges to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul proceed to a decisive U.S. Supreme Court battle, state ballot boxes are becoming skirmishing grounds in efforts to impede the law. Ohio voters on Nov. 8 will decide an amendment to their constitution aimed at undercutting the federal Affordable Care Act, joining four states that considered similar measures last year and four slated to vote next year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. ... The votes aimed at Obama's plan are "purely symbolic" because federal laws have supremacy over conflicting state measures, said Elizabeth Price Foley, a professor of constitutional and health-care law at Florida International University. A high court ruling upholding the law would trump state laws and amendments, she said (Niquette, 9/23).