INDIANAPOLIS – Today a federal court in Florida heard the arguments of a group of 20 states – including Indiana – in their legal challenge to the new federal health care law. Attorney General Greg Zoeller, who joined the lawsuit on behalf of Indiana in May, issued this statement:
“Indiana and 19 other states who brought this legal challenge ask the court to decide a fundamental question: Can the federal government require individuals to purchase a private health insurance policy or face a penalty? This individual mandate is unprecedented, and raises the specter of what other financial products the federal government might seek to compel individuals to buy regardless of whether they want to or can afford to. Our bringing a respectful legal challenge is the means by which this question about the proper role of federal government eventually can be asked of and answered by the United States Supreme Court,†Zoeller said.
“We also are heartened by the fact that Virginia was successful this week in its separate legal challenge to the federal health care law. Virginia’s challenge had raised legal arguments similar to those in our case in Florida: that the individual mandate to purchase insurance is unconstitutional. The federal court that heard Virginia’s case agreed, and struck down the individual mandate. Although our case is heard in a different court and raises other issues, the same line of legal reasoning has withstood a crucial test,†Zoeller said.
In today’s case in federal court in the Northern District of Florida, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson heard arguments on the merits of the case. The plaintiffs include Indiana, Florida and 18 other states as well as two private individuals and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The U.S. Department of Justice represents the federal government defendants. The court is expected to rule sometime early in 2011. From there, the case is likely to be appealed to a federal circuit court of appeals, and from there potentially to the United States Supreme Court.
From the start of the litigation, Zoeller has spent no additional tax dollars on the legal challenge beyond his office’s regular budget that the Legislature previously approved in 2009. Indiana did not pay a legal fee to join the lawsuit. No outside legal counsel was used; Indiana’s legal work has been performed by a salaried employee of the Attorney General’s office who would have been paid the same regardless of whether Indiana participated. No one from the Attorney General’s Office traveled to Florida today for the courtroom arguments; instead, Solicitor General Thomas M. Fisher monitored the court proceedings by phone from Indianapolis through a court teleconference.
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:
Zoeller for governor!
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