thefilmarchive.org July 11, 2012 Since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, there have been numerous actions in federal courts to challenge the constitutionality of the legislation.[1][2] This article deals with the challenges by states against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, reactions from legal experts with respect to the PPACA’s constitutionality, several federal court rulings on the PPACA’s constitutionality and the final ruling on the constitutionality of the legislation by the US Supreme Court in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. Almost immediately after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the Virginia state legislature passed a law that purported to nullify the individual mandate provision of the federal Act.[26] Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli then sued Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Cuccinelli’s lawsuit was separate from the states participating in Florida’s lawsuit. The case was heard by Judge Henry E. Hudson, who was appointed to the bench by George W. Bush. On May 24, 2010, the Obama administration filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that states cannot escape federal law simply by passing state laws that contravene federal ones.[27] Cuccinelli filed a counter-motion on June 7, rebutting federal claims and asserting that health insurance was not commerce as intended by the Constitution …