Maryland requires health care from companies rhyming with “Tall Smart”

Today a federal judge struck down a Maryland state law requiring companies with more than 10,000 employees to provide health insurance to employees. The law was so narrowly defined that the only company so affect was Wal-Mart. I would have thought the law would violate some “equal protection” statute but it turns out it was overturned due to interstate labor laws:

Retailers said the Maryland law violated the federal Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which governs health and benefits plans offered to employees.

The judge agreed.

"The act violates ERISA's fundamental purpose of permitting multi-state employers to maintain nationwide health and welfare plans, providing uniform nationwide benefits and permitting uniform national administration," the judge wrote.

So that’s that, for now.