Both sides in the legal battle over President Barack Obama's administration's health care overhaul in Virginia agree that a federal appeals court has jurisdiction to decide the case. Now judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond has asked for additional briefs.
A three-judge panel asked whether the federal Anti-Injunction Act, which generally prohibits lawsuits challenging a tax before it is collected, bars the court from deciding the case.
The question arose because the health care law requires citizens to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
Virginia's attorney general and Liberty University, which filed separate suits challenging the health care law, and the Justice Department said in briefs filed this week that the Anti-Injunction Act does not apply in this case.
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