From the AP:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Attorneys general from 13 states sued the federal government Tuesday, claiming the landmark health care overhaul is unconstitutional just seven minutes after President Barack Obama signed it into law.
The lawsuit was filed in Pensacola after the Democratic president signed the 10-year, $938 billion bill the House passed Sunday night.
"The Constitution nowhere authorizes the United States to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty, that all citizens and legal residents have qualifying health care coverage," the lawsuit says.
http://www.aolnews.com/...
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is taking the lead and is joined by attorneys general from South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania, Alabama, South Dakota, Idaho, Washington, Colorado and Louisiana. All are Republicans except James "Buddy" Caldwell of Louisiana, a Democrat.
While not unexpected, this is faster, and with more states than I thought they would get.
Texas, it seems, HAS NOT joined the Florida Lawsuit. AG of Texas, Gregg Abbot in the process of filing a separate lawsuit.
Virginia's AG filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, and Indiana appears to be readying a suit of it's own, too. Tennessee's AG is considering a suit, as well.
The 13-State suit contends that the Healthcare Reform Bill, as passed, violate's the 10th Amendment of the Constitution.
AP quotes Lawrence Friedman, a professor who teaches constitutional law at the New England School of Law in Boston, as saying this suit has little chance, and that this will ultimately be decided in the Supreme Court.
Which, I believe, is exactly the point, to get it elevated to the Supreme Court as quickly as possible.
The other state seem to be taking different tacts to this, with discussions in some states centering around protesting against it on the basis of HCR mandates being an Unconstitutional "Poll Tax".
Some in Florida are discussing a State Constitutional Amendment, as well.
Business Week has a better Article, IMHO, that gets more in to the cost factors:
"For California, with a $20 billion budget deficit, the extra load will cost at least an additional $2 billion to $3 billion annually, said Douglas, chief deputy director for California’s health care programs. He said the overhaul is currently projected to add 1.6 million people to the 7 million enrolled in his state’s program.
"We face enormous challenges just sustaining our existing program," said Douglas in a March 18 telephone interview. "I just don’t see states having the capacity to move forward on these changes in this environment."
The numbers of new enrollees because of the overhaul are based on current estimates and may be low, he said in an e-mail. The estimate doesn’t incorporate the growth that the program, known in California as Medi-Cal, may experience even without the new federal legislation, he said.
Medi-Cal recipients are projected to increase 4.3 percent to 7.3 million in fiscal 2011, which begins July 1, spokesman Norman Williams said."
http://www.businessweek.com/...
Here we go, folks.....
((DISCLAIMER)-I am not a Constitutional Lawyer, and I do not play one on TV, or the Internet)