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Attorney General Schneider and 25 Other States Ask Supreme Court To Review Health Care Lawsuit
September 28, 2011
AUGUSTA ? Attorney General William J. Schneider and 25 other states filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the United States Supreme Court to accept the decision of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in order to resolve far-reaching constitutional issues arising out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
In State of Florida, et al. v. United States Health and Human Services, et al., the Eleventh Circuit agreed with the majority of states and held that the individual mandate provision of the health care overhaul law exceeds the commerce powers of Congress and is unconstitutional.
The states have asked the Supreme Court to review three other aspects of the opinion including whether the entire Act must fail because its centerpiece ? the mandate that every person purchase insurance ? is unconstitutional; whether the federal government can force the states to administer and fund a substantial expansion of Medicaid or risk all of their Medicaid funding; and whether the federal government can require states to give state employees a federally mandated level of health insurance coverage.
?This is one of several efforts to have the Supreme Court decide the obvious constitutional questions arising out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,? said Attorney General Schneider. ?The sooner that the nation?s highest court considers and resolves these issues, the more expeditiously and efficiently will the federal government and the states be able to solve the health care crisis in our country. I look forward to the Supreme Court granting our request, and determine that the Act is unconstitutional so that individual rights and state sovereignty will be properly preserved while at the same time Americans? health needs are fairly met.?
