Citing “crippling uncertainty” faced by the country as the battle over health care plays out in the courts, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli pushed once again for the U.S. Supreme Court to bypass the normal appellate process and directly hear the state’s lawsuit over the federal health care law.
The federal government had previously argued that the case should go through the standard appeals process.
But in a reply brief released Tuesday, Cuccinelli writes that the opposition to Virginia’s petition is based on a “misapprehension” of a law passed by the state legislature in 2010 exempting Virginia citizens from purchasing health insurance, as well as “a failure to recognize the significant damage that delaying final resolution of the questions will inflict upon states and others.”
The Justice Department has appealed a U.S. District judge’s December ruling that the provision of the health care law requiring most Americans to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional. The case is scheduled to be heard in May by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, but both sides expect the issue to ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a separate, multi-state case in Florida, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson declared the law unconstitutional, arguing that Congress exceeded its authority in mandating that most Americans buy health insurance. Three other federal judges have deemed the law constitutional.
