On August 6th, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and 19 other state attorneys generals and governors advanced their legal challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In a legal brief filed with the federal district court in Florida, the states show why the federal health care law violates the U.S. Constitution and why the federal government’s attempt to get the states’ challenge dismissed is meritless.
A hearing on the federal government’s motion to dismiss is scheduled for September 14th. The federal government failed in its first attempt to dismiss a similar state action, brought by the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a ruling handed down August 2nd.
The 20-state coalition includes Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Washington, Colorado, Michigan, Utah, Alabama, South Dakota, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Alaska. The lawsuit is filed in the Federal District Court in the Northern District of Florida. The states are joined in this lawsuit by the National Federation of Independent Business, and individual plaintiffs Mary Brown and Kaj Ahlburg.
To read the brief in its entirety, please visit: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/releases/2010/080610states_response_mtd.pdf