South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has joined 19 other Attorneys General in filing suit to stop the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The states contend the nation’s health plan violates the Origination Clause of the Constitution—that requires that all tax bills begin in the House of Representatives. Jackley says he feels the Attorneys General have a good chance to win the challenge.
As Jackley explains, “What that means is that Obamacare would have to follow the rules. That Congress would have to follow the rules and have another look at health care, but that look at health care would have to originate, if it’s indeed going to be a tax, it would have to originate in the House of Representatives. I think all attorney generals have said there are health care issues in the United States. However, these health care issues should not be founded upon unconstitutional statutes. And we’re just simply asking the court to direct it back to Congress, to follow the Constitution; to not tell the American people this is not a tax, to not rely on the Commerce clause—but do it right.”
Jackley says the situation has to do with individual and states’ rights. He adds five years ago, the Senate struck another measure dealing with veterans’ home ownership, and replaced that bill with a two-thousand page amendment now called Obamacare. The challenge has been filed in the Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans.