White House, angered by healthcare bill ruling, attacks judge

White House Fires Back at Ruling Declaring Obama's Health Care Law Unconstitutional, Calls Decision "Judicial Activism"

Senior Obama administration officials told reporters late Monday afternoon that a federal judge's ruling deeming the sweeping health care reform law unconstitutional is "well out of the mainstream of judicial opinion" and predicted it would be overturned on appeal.

The officials laid out their case against the ruling, which is grounded in the argument that the mandate that Americans buy health care insurance or pay a fine, on a conference call. They suggested that judge Roger Vinson decision ignored cases that did not fit his conclusion, that a "good deal of it is built on sort of rhetorical conjecture," and that the judge did allow that the federal government has the right to regulate decisions to buy insurance despite his ultimate conclusion.

"The analysis is on the whole is, to put it charitably, unconventional," said one official. Another said repeatedly that it is an "outlier" that contradicts other rulings.