Lawsuits filed in the wake of health care signing
(NEWSCHANNEL 3) – President Barack Obama signed a historic piece of health care legislation on Tuesday, and while there has been celebration, lawsuits against the bill have already begun.
Michigan's Attorney General Mix Cox has joined one such lawsuit, and another federal lawsuit has been filed on behalf of four people in southeast Michigan. Both suits say the new health care law is unconstitutional.
As President Obama was signing the health care bill into law on Tuesday, the ink was already drying in Florida on a lawsuit.
“Unconstitutional and invades the sovereignty of the states,” said Florida's Attorney General, Bill McCollum.
McCollum and Attorney Generals from twelve other states, including Michigan, have joined in the suit. They're challenging the law's individual mandate, that in 2014 will require Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty.
“It forces people to do something, in the sense of buying a health care policy, or pay a penalty, a tax or a fine,” said McCollum, “that simply the constitution does not allow Congress to do.”
The Thomas More Law Center has filed a similar federal lawsuit in the eastern district of Michigan.
“We're challenging Congress' authority to pass the law in the first instance,” said Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center.
Four people from the eastern part of Michigan are listed as plaintiffs. Their lawyer says the federal government can't require them to buy anything.
“They don't have health care coverage because they choose not to have health care coverage,” said Muise, “and they object to the federal government forcing them to do so.”
Michigan's Attorney General, Mike Cox, said in a statement that the health care law is an unprecedented overreach by Congress and the President.
Cox said there are limits to what Congress can force the individual and the state to do, and the health care bill exceeds those limits.
You can see the full text of the lawsuits are linked below.
Attorney General's lawsuit (pdf file).
