Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock responded last week to a request by Republican state lawmakers that he join several other states in suing the federal government on the grounds that parts of health care reform legislation are unconstitutional.
Bullock backed up his previous assertion that the lawsuits are motivated more by politics than constitutional concerns. An excerpt from his response:
The lawsuit also presents serious standing and ripeness issues, given that it appears to be filed based more on the timing of the November 2010 elections than the date in 2014 when individuals and states might first be subject to the Act’s requirements.
Therefore, I have concluded that once you take the politics out of these issues, there is no credible constitutional claim. So, like nearly three-quarters of my Democratic and Republican colleagues in state Attorney General offices across the country, I have not joined the lawsuit. We are not alone in our bipartisan opposition to politicizing the Constitution and the courts in this way. Eighteen of your Republican counterparts in the United States Senate sponsored a similar health insurance reform bill in 1993, see 5.1770,103rd Cong. (1993), and I do not doubt their fidelity to their constitutional oath. Lawyers and constitutional scholars across the political spectrum have determined, as President Reagan’s former Solicitor General Charles Fried has said, that the lawsuit is “simply a political ploy” without legal merit.
Talking Points Memo interviewed Montana House Minority Leader Scott Sales, who said, “He (Bullock) accuses us of playing politics – that seems a little political to me.”
Here’s Bullock’s letter in its entirety: