13 Attorneys General will file a constitutionality lawsuit against the healthcare reform bill

  According to this article, 13 attorneys general have written a letter to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid stating that they will file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the healthcare reform bill.

  I think that the focus of this lawsuit is on the wrong clause in the healthcare reform bill; the attorneys general claim that they will challenge the constitutionality of Ben Nelson’s $100 million kickback that ensures Nebraska will never have to pay any increased costs in Medicare. If the Nebraska provision is dropped they will not go forward with their challenge.

  The article never states what clause in the constitution they are going to base their case on but as far as I can tell it would probably be based on the part of Article 1 Section 8 which reads,” all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.” The attorneys general would argue that Nebraska’s exemption from increased Medicare taxes would be a violation of the “uniform” clause in the constitution.

  Again, this is just a guess, maybe they have something else in mind. I don’t think that there will be much of a case here, is what Ben Nelson secured for his state that much different from the other pork barrel projects that go into all bills? I don’t think so.

  I think that the attorneys general should focus their attention on the healthcare mandates. That would be a better argument in my opinion. Even if they do win the case based on this issue, the rest of the healthcare reform bill will remain intact, including the mandates.

  Perhaps this lawsuit would just be an opening salvo, if this challenge fails perhaps more challenges will follow, with the mandates being next on the list.

  At least I hope so.