It was no tempest in a teapot this week when a Pensacola judge stirred the national debate about the federal health care law by ruling that it was not only unconstitutional to require people to buy insurance, but that the entire health care law violates the nation’s founding document.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson became the second federal judge to rule against the major portion of President Barack Obama’s health care plan, a mandate that everyone be insured. But he also took it a step further and said that problem made the whole thing invalid.

Charges of “judicial activism” that typically come from conservatives rang out from liberals across the U.S., but Vinson said that the mandate was essential to the health care law, and thus, the whole thing had to go.

"It should be emphasized that while the individual mandate was clearly "necessary and essential" to the act as drafted, it is not "necessary and essential" to health care reform in general," Vinson wrote. "It is undisputed that there are various other (constitutional) ways to accomplish what Congress wanted to do."

Reaction to the lawsuit in Florida, where it originated, was swift – and highly partisan.

Despite basing his whole campaign on the theme of getting to work, Gov. Rick Scott said this week he the state will be in no hurry to implement any aspect of the law with Vinson’s ruling.

"We are not going to spend a lot of time and money with regard to trying to get ready to implement that until we know exactly what is going to happen," Scott said. "I hope and I believe that either it will be declared unconstitutional or it will be repealed."

Meanwhile, Florida Democrats said Scott – and Vinson – were out of touch.

“For the governor, walking way from health insurance reform is just another ideological battle,” said Rep. Mia Jones, the ranking Democrat on the House Health and Human Services Committee. “But for many Floridians, health insurance coverage is a real-life struggle.”

"For all of my colleagues on the conservative side who criticized activist judges for their lack of deference to the legislative and executive branches of government, I hope they'll be equally as critical of this decision," added Needra Tanden, chief operating officer of the Center for American Progress, who worked on crafting the legislation.

Predictably, U.S. Department of Justice officials were more focused on appealing Vinson’s decision than how it was viewed politically, saying immediately this week they would appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which has jurisdiction over cases originating in Florida, Georgia and Alabama.