On Monday, August 2, a federal judge in Virginia handed down a first round victory to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in his attempt to challenge the federal health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, passed earlier this year. Judge Henry Hudson refused to dismiss the case and set further hearings for October.

This ruling is the first of many legal hurdles Attorney General Cuccinelli will have to jump in making his case to the court that Virginia’s law opting out of health care reform, among other issues, is not a prohibited interference of state law with federal law. There are more than twelve other suits by states over health care reform; Virginia’s is the first to reach the courts.

Walter Dellinger, a Harvard University and Duke University law professor, made an interesting historical analogy during a press conference call reported by the AP. Dellinger compared the passage of this Virginia law to laws passed by states during the civil rights era to attempt to circumvent federal civil rights legislation. If the courts allow Virginia’s law to interfere with the Affrodable Care Act, “it could be that any state could pass any statute declaring any federal law – whether it’s the Selective Service law or the Social Security law – invalid in that state and then allow that state to bring a lawsuit to challenge the federal law,” said Professor Dellinger.

Achieving a dismissal of a suit at an early stage in the case is a difficult goal. In some instances, if a court dismisses a case at this point, it is finding that no relief can be granted to the plaintiff; they essentially have no case at all. While this case may look one sided, depending on which side the viewer supports, there are certainly many questions of law and of fact that should still be addressed.

According to the AP, health officials estimate 1.2 million uninsured Virginians will gain coverage under the Affordable Care Act, 684,000 residents will qualify for tax credits to help them buy insurance, and 93,400 small businesses in the state could get tax credits for covering their employees. How the state law would affect the previously uninsured in Virginia would be just one of the many questions that can and should be asked in this case.

Related Resources:

  • Va. health-care lawsuit to proceed (Washington Post)
  • White House Moves to Dismiss Health Care Suit (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
  • What is the Supremacy Clause and Why Should You Care? (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
  • Next Health Care Fight: States AG’s to Challenge Law (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
  • Tort Reform is Not The Way To Lower Health Care Costs (provided by The Law Office of Elam & Rousseaux, P.A.)
  • Healthcare Reform Bill Changing Tax Reporting in Business (provided by Brown, P.C.)

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