General

Virginia to sue over Obamacare

State attorney general plans to take the federal government to court

Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney general, is planning to issue a legal challenge against the U.S. federal government for the “unconstitutional overreach of its authority” created by President Barack Obama’s health care bill, which passed through the House on Sunday. Cuccinelli says the bill, which is meant to provide coverage to 95 percent of Americans, goes too far because it forces citizens to purchase insurance. The government has claimed authority to regulate health care through its jurisdiction over interstate commerce, but Cuccinelli says that “just being alive is not interstate commerce,” and that his state’s citizens are not subject to a federal mandate. He plans to use a unique Virginia law, which protects citizens from having to buy health insurance, to make the challenge. Similar laws are in various stages in 34 other states, and at least two other attorney generals are also promising to file a legal challenge to the health care bill.

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