Federal appeals court upholds health law's employer mandate

A panel of the 4th Circuit threw out a lawsuit from Liberty University that challenged both the law's requirement of large employers to provide insurance for workers and the administration's contraception coverage requirement.

Politico: Appeals Court Tosses Liberty University Challenge To Obamacare
A federal appeals court on Thursday tossed the Liberty University lawsuit that challenged both the Obamacare employer mandate and its contraception coverage requirements. A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the employer mandate, which the Obama administration last week postponed until 2015, is constitutional. The panel rejected the contraception challenge on a technicality -- not on the merits -- because Liberty did not include that aspect in its first court filings in 2010 and a lower court never heard it (Haberkorn, 7/11).

The Wall Street Journal: Appeals Court Upholds Obamacare's Employer Mandate
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Virginia said the plaintiff, Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, had legal standing to bring the case. But it rejected the school's claim that the employer mandate was unconstitutional. ... It's the first time an appeals court has shot down a challenge to the Obamacare employer mandate, according to Carl Tobias, a constitutional scholar at the University of Richmond (Gershman, 7/11).

The Hill: Federal Appeals Court Rejects ObamaCare Challenge
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the individual and employer mandates in President Obama's health care law, while declining to rule on the law's contraception mandate. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in a legal challenge filed by Liberty University, the conservative Christian school founded by Jerry Falwell (Baker, 7/11).

The Associated Press: Appeals Court Rejects Lawsuit Over Health Care Law
Liberty attorney Mat Staver said he plans to appeal. "At least the court reached the merits and did not try to dodge the issues on procedural or standing grounds," he said in a telephone interview. "This clears the way to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will be the final stop anyway." A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a telephone message (O'Dell, 7/11).