Today the US Appeals court in the 4th Circuit rejected Virginia’s standing in filing suit challenging Obamacare. That is the story. The wishful thinking is that this means the court supports the individual mandate.

Read this story. It has two paragraphs that are mutually exclusive.

This paragraph.

The unanimous decision from the three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a lower court’s decision to declare the law unconstitutional and is the second appellate court ruling in favor of the government’s right to require individuals to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

And then this.

Thursday’s ruling didn’t get to whether the individual mandate in the health care law is constitutional; it strictly examined Virginia’s right to sue. The court ruled that the state law does not create the kind of conflict that allows for a challenge in federal court.

Ummm. Both these things can’t be true. What sloppy reporting.