Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

I leave you this fine evening with a column by law professor Jonathan Turley. I think Turley's analysis is correct. The Obama administration intentionally omitted a severability clause. Had such a clause been inserted, it would have invited a judge to strike down the individual mandate without striking down the entire law. The administration knows that the individual mandate is the linchpin of the legislation, so it was daring judges to strike down the entire law. In effect, the administration reasoned as follows: (1) Either the entire law stands or no part of it stands; (2) no judge will strike down the entire law; therefore, (3) all judges will uphold the entire law. Judge Vinson falsified the second premise, to the administration's horror.