The legal doctrines of standing and ripeness are based on good conservative principles, designed to weed out theoretical suits and cases that are filed too early. As I’ve argued before, states don’t have standing to sue on the individual mandate. Nor does the Florida ruling apply to states outside of the 11th Circuit.
So when TPM reported today that the 6th Circuit panel in the Thomas More case asked for briefing on standing and ripeness, I was not surprised, except to wonder why it took so long.
Practical result if the government won on this issue in all Circuits? The individual mandate cases would be delayed until 2014.
h/t to Don
