“The federal government’s claim that it can regulate and tax an individual’s decision not to engage in interstate commerce by requiring that they purchase a private health insurance product is unprecedented. I believe it both necessary and appropriate that this question be asked of and answered by the U.S. Supreme Court — and that process starts by rejecting the federal government’s motion to dismiss and by hearing the merits of our case,†Zoeller said.
“The Indiana Attorney General’s Office has not spent any additional dollars to participate in this case; our work in helping to draft the motions was done within our existing budget and required nothing beyond that,†Zoeller added.
To avoid costs, no one from the Indiana Attorney General’s Office was in Florida today for the courtroom arguments; instead, the Attorney General’s staff monitored the court proceedings by phone from Indianapolis through a court teleconference.
U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson heard arguments today on the federal government defendants’ motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ challenge to the new law. Besides Indiana, Florida and 18 other states, the plaintiffs include two private individuals and the National Federation of Independent Business. The court took the motion under advisement and will rule at a later date.
Before announcing in March that he would join the multistate legal challenge to the new federal law, Zoeller in February prepared a 55-page report on and analysis of the federal healthcare legislation at the request of U.S. Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana. The Attorney General’s report to Lugar is found here:
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