LIVE from the 2012 Democratic National Convention

DNC 2012

Today's pictures from the 2012 DNC show impressive sand sculptures located in the heart of Charlotte, NC at EpiCentre. 

DNC 2012

SCOTUS: Affordable Care Act is Constitutional

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional.

Chief Justice Roberts joined the four left-leaning justices on the bench making it a 5-4 vote in favor of saving the ACA in its entirety, with exception that the federal government's power to terminate states' Medicaid funds is narrowly read.

The individual mandate that requires people to buy health insurance, or face a penalty, was not upheld under the Commerce Clause, rather, the majority of Justices upheld the law as constitutional under the government's tax power. The penalty for failing to carry insurance possesses “the essential feature of any tax,” producing revenue for the government, Chief Justice Roberts wrote.

Although the Obama administration always asserted the penalty was valid under the federal taxing power, until Thursday no court had fully accepted that theory. Those that upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as the law is known, did so under Congress's constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.

The Court did restrict a portion of the ACA dealing with the expansion of Medicaid, which in its original state, allowed the federal government to withhold Medicaid funding from states who refused to follow the new eligibility requirements. As explained by Chief Justice Roberts, Congress acted constitutionally in offering states “new” Medicaid funds to expand coverage to millions of new individuals. The Court further held the government may constitutionally require compliance with the new ACA requirements in order to obtain these funds. Although Congress can deny the new funds to states choosing not to expand Medicaid, they cannot penalize those states by taking away their existing Medicaid funding. The Constitution therefore requires that states have a choice about whether to participate in the expansion; and if they decide not to, they can continue to collect existing funds.

Although todays decision leaves the ACA intact, its anticipated future is still unclear. House Speaker John Boehner said the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the majority of President Obama's healthcare reform law would “strengthen [the] resolve” of the GOP to repeal it entirely.

If everything goes as planned for the Obama Administration, most of the law's key provisions are set to take effect roughly two years from now, on January 1, 2014.

You can read the Court's opinion in its entirety here.

(c) Picture:  freedigitalphotos.net

Obama Suspends Deportation of Eligible Young Undocumented Immigrants*

This past Friday, President Obama announced a new federal policy that will ease enforcement of immigration laws and allow an unprecedented number of undocumented immigrants to apply for work permits. The change in policy is estimated to affect as many as 800,000 immigrants nationwide, and just under 40,000 undocumented immigrants in North Carolina.

Taking effect immediately, this policy will grant “deferred action” on deportation proceedings if the individual came to the U.S. under the age of sixteen; has continuously resided here for at least five years preceding June 15, 2012; and is currently in school, has graduated from high school (or obtained a general education development certificate), or is an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard or Armed Forces. Additionally, the individual must not have any serious criminal convictions or be over the age of thirty.

Under this policy, President Obama and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are permitted to exercise their prosecutorial discretion, which gives them the power to examine individual cases of immigrants in making deportation decisions. It allows the President to accept or reject applicants based on the requirements drawn up by the DHS and to interfere in cases when immigrants are already in removal proceedings.

President Obama’s new immigration plan closely resembles the DREAM Act, which was blocked by Republican lawmakers in 2010. One major difference in the new policy is that it does not grant a path to citizenship, as the DREAM Act would do. Because the use of prosecutorial discretion confers no substantive right or pathway to citizenship, the DHS cannot provide assurance that all deferred action requests will be granted. Only the Congress, acting through its legislative authority, can confer these rights. It is the hope of many undocumented students and their supporters that President Obama’s announcement will increase the pressure on Congress to end the Republican filibuster and send the DREAM Act to the president’s desk.

Opponents of the new policy fear it may have taken away the opportunity for American citizens and legal immigrants in their pursuit of the American dream to get an education, go on to college, and join the work force. Opponents also say that with unemployment still sitting at over 8 percent, our economy is not stable enough to deal with this added increase to the workforce.

Whatever measures Congress decides to take in the future, it is clear that the majority of people in the U.S. would like to see comprehensive immigration reform that puts in place a more long term solution to the problem. 

*Author:  BridgehouseLaw Charlotte Summer Associate Lindsey Ogden.

(c) Picture:  freedigitalphotos.net

Storm on Capitol Hill: Convenience Store Owners vs. Banks and Debit Card Companies

After having been through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, it was time for a significant change in the American financial regulatory environment. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law by President Obama on July 21 2010, is supposed to be this change.

One of its amendments directs the Federal Reserve Bank to limit the fees, banks collect from retailers each time a customer makes a purchase with a debit card, to a „reasonable and proportional“ amount.

While merchants are delighted contending that these fees are hindering business growth, expansion plans and the recruitment of new workers, banks and debit card companies storm Capital Hill saying that their tremendous loss will result in either not issuing debit cards to customers anymore or in raising other consumer banking charges. Lenders like Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and U.S. Bancorp already chose the second option. They say it is not understandable why especially giant retailers like Home Depot and Wall Mart should profit from it.

But what about smaller banks? Although they are supposed to be exempted from the law, they are worried about not being able to persist in the market since big banks have no other choice than offering lower fees.

The ongoing discussions and different sights of the story made several politicians and lawmakers doubt the meaningfulness of the debit card amendment they have been once so supportive of. It remains to be seen what July 2011 brings, the month when the Act is supposed to be put into effect.

(c) Picture: worradmu - http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Other_g374-Paying_With_Card_p31957.html

Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010

On December 17, 2010 President Obama signed into law the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (2010 Tax Relief Act).

Please visit the Byrne, Davis & Hicks, P.C. website to review the major provisions of t he 2010 Tax Relief Act.

Got questions? Feel free to contact a member of our International Law Practice Group in Charlotte, NC or Atlanta, GA.

Judge Voids Key Element of Obama Health Care Law

As previously reported on our blog, there have been several legal challenges by U.S. states against President Obama's health care reform law. The challenges to the health care law are aiming for an ultimate hearing before the United States Supreme Court.

On Monday challengers came a step closer to having such a hearing when a federal judge in Virginia became the first judge to invalidate any part of the sprawling act, ensuring that appellate courts will receive contradictory opinions from lower courts.

The judge, Henry E. Hudson of Federal District Court in Richmond, ruled that the keystone provision in the Obama health care law is unconstitutional. He said the law’s requirement that most Americans obtain insurance exceeded the regulatory authority granted to Congress under the Commerce Clause.

Judge Hudson, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, declined the plaintiff’s request to suspend the act’s implementation pending appeal, meaning there should be no immediate effect on its rollout.

In a 42-page opinion, Judge Hudson wrote: “Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market.” Allowing Congress to exert such authority, he said, “would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers.”

Judge Hudson is the third district court judge to reach a determination on the merits in one of the two dozen lawsuits challenging the health care law. The other judges, in Detroit and Lynchburg, Va., have upheld the law. Lawyers say the appellate process could last another two years before the Supreme Court settles the dispute.

To read the full story, please click here.

Shift May Push Democrats to Compromise on Tax Cuts

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday invited Congressional Republican leaders to negotiate about extending the soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts, but he stood his ground by arguing against the Republicans’ demand to keep those cuts for income above $250,000.

Yet President Obama’s overture opens the door for extending those top tax rates at least for a year as Republicans play from a strengthened hand in coming weeks.

All the rates expire Dec. 31, a deadline set in 2001 to limit the cost. Extending them for another decade would cost nearly $4 trillion, and more counting the interest on that increase to the federal debt.

Both parties’ strategies are in flux as the election results sink in. But the White House and many Congressional Democrats privately anticipate a compromise that would extend the Bush rates for the middle class for at least five years, and the rates for higher-income individuals for a year or two — in a nod to Republicans’ contention that no one’s taxes should go up until the economy has fully recovered.

The Democrats’ goal is to “de-couple” the tax cuts for middle and high incomes; they argue that if rates for the rich expire first and Republicans move to extend them, they will have a harder time justifying the cost of extending rates that apply to about 2 percent of taxpayers — couples making more than $250,000 a year and individuals earning more than $200,000.

Extending the top rates for 2011 would cost roughly $33 billion; for the decade through 2020, the revenue loss would reach $700 billion.

Republicans continue to insist on a long-term extension for all the tax cuts — as John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican in line to become House speaker, reiterated on Wednesday — even as they protest the mounting federal debt.

Some Republicans say they will accept only a deal that extends the tax cuts for the middle class and the wealthy in tandem. And on Wednesday, they were hardly inclined to give ground, having withstood Democrats’ attempts throughout the campaign to portray Republicans as blocking tax cuts for the middle class on behalf of those for the rich.

The Bush tax cuts are one of several pressing fiscal issues that President Obama and Congress must address before year’s end. Others are overdue appropriations for the government’s operations, expiring tax breaks for individuals and businesses, action to forestall big cuts in reimbursements for doctors who treat Medicare patients and the expiration after November of assistance for an estimated two million Americans who have been unemployed for long periods.

All of those issues are crowding the agenda for what is likely to be a short lame-duck session of Congress at mid-month. It will pose a first test of whether President Obama and Republicans can work together to solve knotty problems, though Democrats will remain in control of the House and Senate for that session.

The full story can be found here.

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