Va. appeals health care challenge ruling to Supreme Court

As expected, Virginia is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling dismissing its challenge to President Barack Obama's landmark health care legislation.

Earlier this month the Richmond-based court ruled Virginia lacked the legal standing to pursue the case. The state's filing asks the high court to not only address the issue of standing, but also to hear its case based on the merits.

Specifically, Virginia argues that the individual insurance mandate provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- which will require nearly every American to purchase insurance by 2014 or face a penalty -- is unconstitutional because it compels Americans to engage in commerce.

The state asserts that its own law prohibiting insurance mandates -- the Virginia Healthcare Freedom Act, enacted just weeks before the federal legislation was passed in March 2010 -- should be in force.

"The Founding Fathers fully intended that the states would serve as a check on federal power," Cuccinelli said in a statement this afternoon.

"As we have always maintained, questions over the constitutionality of the mandate and penalty are significant, and the uncertainty that those questions have caused continues to have a negative impact on the nation's economy, as states and businesses cannot project future costs for a law that may or may not be around a year from now," he added, addressing the merits of the challenge."

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice petitioned the Supreme Court to review the case brought by Florida on behalf 26 states challenging the constitutionality of the individual insurance mandate. In that case, the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the mandate as unconstitutional. Parties in other challenges to the legislation have also asked the high court for review.

The petitions make it highly likely the court will hear the case and rule by the end of its spring term, in June 2012 -- in the middle of the presidential election year.

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