Missouri Files Amicus Supporting States' Challenge of Federal Health Care Law
Missouri today filed an amicus brief supporting states challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care law, according to the Associated Press.
Florida and 25 other states filed the lawsuit, which is on appeal in the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In January, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled that the individual insurance mandate of the law exceeds congressional authority.
In the Missouri amicus brief, state attorney general Chris Koster argues that the individual mandate would not be unlike Congress penalizing people for undergoing an annual prostate exam, the Wall Street Journal reports, or maintain a certain body mass to control obesity.
In a letter to Missouri legislators, Koster stated that he personally supports expanding health coverage, but he also believes that the federal law is in conflict with a recent Missouri voter-approved law, which bars the government from penalizing people who don’t have health insurance.
