21 states backing Kinder health care suit

Editor's note: This story has been changed to reflect the capacity in which Peter Kinder filed both the lawsuit and the appeal.

Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder's challenge to the federal health care reform law gained momentum Monday as 21 states filed a brief in support.

Kinder's lawsuit, currently on appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, asserts the mandate that individuals buy health insurance included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Kinder filed the suit last July both in his capacity as Lt. Governor and as a private citizen, along with several other people. He is involved in the appeal only as a private citizen. The brief, filed on behalf of the 21 states, gives creditability to Kinder's contention that this requirement is an unconstitutional part of the law, said Jay Eastlick, Kinder's spokesman.

"Some states we solicited, other states piggy-backed on we're doing because they have the same concerns about the federal health care law," Eastlick said.

The 21 states included in the brief are Texas, Florida, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.

The states are represented by former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement.

In the brief filed Monday by Clement, these states claim the health care reform law's mandate that people purchase health insurance or pay a penalty by 2014 is unprecedented. It's also the first time in the nation's history that Congress has required individuals to enter into commerce as a condition of living in the United States, the brief states.

Eastlick hopes the brief will convince the court they need to rule on the matter.

The Department of Justice must file a reply by Aug. 11, but it is unknown if or when the appeals court may make a decision in the case.

In addition to the states' brief, a separate brief was filed on behalf of more than 150 elected officials of states within the Eighth Circuit asking the court of appeals not to delay in resolving the case. Among those represented by this filing were 127 members of the Missouri Legislature, Missouri House Speaker Steven Tilly, R-Perryville, and Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer, R-Dexter.

"Regardless of what happens, this could end up in the Supreme Court," Eastlick said. "I know Lt. Gov. Kinder is prepared to go that far."

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed paperwork earlier this year to support a Florida lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new federal health care law.

Koster, a Democrat, said he supports an expansion of health care coverage, but in light of Missouri voters' support for Proposition C, a measure passed by 71 percent last August barring the government from mandating health insurance coverage, he believed the legal challenge against the mandate was necessary. He has not, however, filed anything in conjunction with Kinder's suit or brought any challenges against the new health care law on behalf of Missouri as a state.

When asked if Koster would be taking any additional action on behalf of Missouri as a result of Monday's filings, attorney general's office spokeswoman Nancy Gonder didn't respond specifically. "The attorney general is already on record expressing concerns about the constitutionality of the individual mandate as expressed in the Affordable Care Act," she said.

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