LIVONIA, MI— Attorney General Mike Cox’s legal fight to stop the unconstitutional Obama – Pelosi health care bill from forcing Michigan residents to purchase a product as the price of citizenship has been defended by an increasing number of Constitutional experts in recent days.

“Never before in our history have you had to buy something as the price of citizenship,” Cox said recently.  “This is an unprecedented overreach by Congress and the President. There are constitutional limits to what Congress can force individuals and the state to do and I am fighting this bill because it exceeds those limits.”  

• Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University said last week in an article submitted to and published by USA Today:

“…These (legal) challenges should not be dismissed as baseless political maneuvering. There is a legitimate concern for many that this mandate constitutes the greatest (and perhaps the most lethal) challenge to states’ rights in U.S. history.

“With this legislation, Congress has effectively defined an uninsured 18-year-old man in Richmond as an interstate problem like a polluting factory. It is an assertion of federal power that is inherently at odds with the original vision of the Framers…

“The ultimate question may not be how Congress can prevail, but how much of states’ rights would be left if it prevailed…

“Federalism was already on life support before the individual mandate.  Make no mistake about it, this plan might provide a bill of good health for the public, but it could amount to a “do not resuscitate” order for federalism.”

• Former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese joined Orin Hatch and Federalist Society Co-Founder and Chairman Steve Calabresi, told the Chicago Tribune on Sunday:

“Every bill that Congress passes must be justified not by the result it would reach but by whether Congress has authority to pass it. The health care bill that liberals rammed through Congress fails this test. It would, for example, require that people purchase a certain level of health insurance or face a financial penalty.”

• Randy Barnett, a Georgetown Law School professor and constitutional law scholar yesterday spoke to the Associated Press, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Lansing State Journal and others about Cox’s lawsuit, saying:

“In the past 15 years the Supreme Court has scaled back Congress when they’ve tried to inject themselves into purely state matters.”          

“I think it’s a perfectly legitimate lawsuit to bring.  These are serious constitutional claims that are being raised.  They will have to be resolved by the Supreme Court eventually.”

In March Cox filed a lawsuit to stop President Obama and House Speaker Pelosi’s massive federal health care bill because it oversteps Congress’s Constitutional authority and for the first time ever forces Michigan residents to purchase a product as the price of citizenship.  The bill also includes trillions of dollars in federal spending, at least 88 new government programs and nearly 1,700 new sets of regulations.

As Attorney General, Cox has saved Michigan residents hundreds of millions of dollars in higher premiums and costs by fighting Blue Cross rate hikes and stopping anti-consumer bills in the state legislature.  Seniors and the uninsured are also saving money as a result of Cox’s MichiganDrugPrices.com, a website where residents can shop for the best deal on more than 150 prescription drugs at stores across the State. 

Cox has recovered a record $162 million in Medicaid Fraud and led the fight to create an Office of Medicaid Inspector General, while also fighting drug companies that fraudulently billed the State of Michigan or put consumers at risk.  He also outlined a set of ten guiding principles for building a foundation for constitutional, long-term healthcare reform in Michigan.

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