Obama Administration attempts to dismiss Virginia's reform suit
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“Virginia seeks to challenge recently enacted federal healthcare reform legislation,” the attorneys wrote. “To accept that challenge, this court would have to make new law and ignore decades of settled precedent.”
In March, Virginia enacted the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act (VHCFA), which states that the government cannot require Virginians to buy health insurance. It was passed by a bipartisan majority in the General Assembly and had the support of Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed suit in federal court shortly after the federal healthcare reform bill’s passage, seeking a declaration that the VHCFA is constitutional and that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority by imposing the individual mandate.
Virginia’s lawsuit is separate from a larger lawsuit, initially a 13-state effort, that has grown to 20 collectively filing against the federal healthcare reform bill.
“The Commonwealth [of Virginia] asserts it has standing to vindicate a sovereign interest in its new statute purporting to exempt Virginians from any federal requirement to purchase health insurance,” wrote the federal attorneys. “A state cannot, however, manufacture its own standing to challenge a federal law by the simple expedient of passing a statute purporting to nullify it. Otherwise, a state could import almost any political or policy dispute into federal court by enacting its side of the argument into state law.”
The dismissal request also stated that Virginia brings into a judicial setting arguments that failed in the legislative arena, where a proponent need not show immediate and concrete harm.
“Virginia’s claim thus fails before the Court can even reach the merit,” the attorneys asserted. “Even if Virginia could surmount this jurisdictional barrier, its claim still would fail, because Congress, in adopting the minimum coverage provision, acted well within its authority under the Commerce Clause.”
Cuccinelli argued: "Just being alive is not interstate commerce. If it were, there would be no limit to the Commerce Clause and to Congress's authority to regulate everything we do."
The U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause usually allows federal law to trump state law. However, if a federal law is found unconstitutional while a conflicting state law is found constitutional, the state law would prevail.
Cuccinelli stated he will respond to the dismissal motion by June 7 upon which, the government will have until June 22 to reply. The case, Commonwealth of Virginia v. Kathleen Sebelius, is currently in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond.