A federal appeals court struck down as unconstitutional the central provision of President Barack Obama's health-care law requiring most Americans get coverage, bringing the 2010 law ever-closer to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 2 to 1 ruling is in direct conflict with an earlier ruling by a federal appeals panel in Cincinnati, which upheld the individual mandate. The provision exceeds Congress's power to regulate commerce, a U.S. appeals court panel in Atlanta ruled today, affirming a lower court in a lawsuit by 26 states.

"This economic mandate represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority," the majority wrote. The law requires "Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them repurchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives."