By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Two officers in the conservative grassroots group Secure Arkansas filed a lawsuit today challenging the constitutionality of the new federal health care law.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, alleges the provision in the health care law requiring nearly all Americans to buy health insurance exceeds Congress’ powers as defined under Article I of the Constitution.
It maintains the provision deprives Arkansas citizens of their sovereignty in violation of Article IV of the Constitution, and that it violates the 10th Amendment, which states that powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states.
“This health care law would seek to impose an unprecedented mandate by the federal government, while chipping away at the Constitution and the belief that limited government is good government,” the group’s chairman, Jeannie Burlsworth, said at a news conference outside the federal courthouse in downtown Little Rock.
Burlsworth and Todd Sharp, the group’s state coordinator, are the named plaintiffs in the litigation, which they want the court to certify as a class-action lawsuit.
Burlsworth and Sharp are seeking an injunction declaring the law unconstitutional or, failing that, a declaration of whether the law requires Arkansans to buy health insurance or be subject to a criminal penalty or fine. They also are asking for attorney’s fees and costs.
Little Rock attorney Chris Stewart is representing Burlsworth and Sharp in the lawsuit. Named as defendants are U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Treasury Department, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, the Labor Department and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.
Secure Arkansas previously asked Attorney General Dustin McDaniel to join with other attorneys general who have filed litigation challenging the health care law. McDaniel has declined, saying such litigation would not succeed and would be politically motivated.
“Our hope was that our elected officials would rise above partisan politics and stand up for the rights of its citizens, but it was not to be,” Burlsworth said today.
McDaniel spokesman Aaron Sadler said today the lawsuit filing “has not changed the attorney general’s position on this matter.”
Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said the governor continues to agree with McDaniel that the state would not succeed with a legal challenge to the health care law.
As for Secure Arkansas’ action, DeCample said, “It’s part of the American system. Any citizen who feels they have been wronged can have their day in court.”
Sharp said the legal action will be funded through donations. He said the lawsuit is the first challenge to the health care law to be initiated by a nonprofit organization, but other nonprofits have expressed interest in “piggy-backing on our suit.”
If the lawsuit is not successful, Secure Arkansas will push for legislation next year to exempt Arkansas from the health care law, Burlsworth said.
Two Republican state lawmakers, Reps. Frank Glidewell of Fort Smith and Dan Greenberg of Little Rock, have proposed an interim study on state legislation to thwart the federal law.
