Even before the looming health care vote, Republicans are already talking about lawsuits if the bill passes. Many interest groups and lawyers are in particular researching the legality of the deem and pass rule and the constitutionality of the individual health insurance mandate.
According to Politico, suing the government over the legality of the deem and pass rule would be a challenge for lawyers. There are already precedents set for judges to stay out of disputes over whether a bill was passed properly.
“The Constitution says that each house can write its own rules. Those rules are up to Congress to adopt and they’re not going to be second-guessed by the courts. As long as there is a vote on the language of the Senate bill, however they go about doing this, then the Senate bill is adopted by the house and they’ve met the requirement of the Constitution, ” said Tim Jost, a law professor at Washington & Lee University.
Already 37 states have started passing legislation that would allow residents to opt out of the individual health insurance mandate. Virginia was the first state to pass the legislation and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has decided to challenge the measure.
Cuccinelli believes that the individual mandate violates the Ninth and Tenth Amendments and has warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he will take legislative action against it.
Many law experts believe that the state statutes against a mandate would not ultimately hold up because federal law in this case supersedes state laws.
All this lawsuit talk could end up being an epic Supreme Court battle or just a grand political circus.