Missouri’s Democratic attorney general said Monday that Congress overstepped its constitutional powers when it mandated that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty, The Associated Press reports.
Attorney General Chris Koster filed a federal appeals court document in support of a lawsuit brought by Florida and 25 other states challenging the constitutionality of the federal health-care law enacted by President Barack Obama last year.
Missouri voters in August became the first in the nation to pass a measure barring the government from requiring people to have health insurance and from penalizing those who don’t. Â Koster said in a letter to legislative leaders Monday that he personally supports an expansion of health coverage, but, based on his legal analysis, believes the federal law is in conflict with Missouri’s new voter-approved law and goes beyond what courts previously have found to be Congress’s authority to regulate interstate commerce under the U.S. Constitution.
At issue is a requirement that Americans carry health insurance except in cases of financial hardship. Those who can’t show they are covered by an employer, government program or their own policy would face IRS fines when the program takes effect in 2014.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of Florida ruled in January that the federal health-care law was unconstitutional because the individual insurance mandate exceeded congressional authority. Although three other federal judges have upheld the law, Judge Vinson’s decision followed the reasoning of a federal judge in Virginia who also ruled against the law.
