North Dakota Joins 13 States in Court Brief Opposing Obama Care

BISMARCK, ND – North Dakota has joined 13 other states in filing a 43 page amicus brief supporting a legal challenge filed by Susan Seven-Sky and four other plaintiffs against Attorney General Eric Holder, claiming that the individual mandate contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or “Obamacare”) is unconstitutional.

An amicus (“friend of the court”) brief represents an unsolicited, legal opnion which may be filed to introduce concerns on issues which have broader implications than the specific parties named. The appeal is currently scheduled to be heard September 23, 2011, by the federal court of appeals, at which time the brief will likely be introduced.

North Dakota has also joined with 26 other states in the Florida challenge of the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the PPACA.
An excerpt from the brief reads as follows:
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is an extraordinary law that rests on unprecedented assertions of federal authority, pushing even the most expansive conception of the federal government’s constitutional powers past the breaking point…The federal government embraces a sweeping view of the Commerce Clause…that would imperil individual liberty, render Congress’s other enumerated powers superfluous, and allow Congress to usurp the general police power reserved to the States.

Other states filing the brief include: Florida, Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.

ND Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem could not be reached for comment. The capital city is currently experiencing crisis flooding.

Written by: Kate Bommarito on May 26, 2011.