Arizona Governor Jan Brewer called a special session of the Arizona legislature for the purpose of the legislature authorizing her to hire outside legal counsel to represent the State of Arizona and file a lawsuit asking the court to find that Obamacare is unconstitutional. The Governor was forced to take this action because Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard refuses to do his job and defend Arizona from the massive unfunded mandates contained in Obamacare. Governor Brewer has stated that Obamacare will cost Arizona at least $1 billion a year at a time when Arizona already has a $3.2 billion deficit. She says that broke Arizona does not have the money to pay for the health care services required by Obamacare. One estimate is that just for Arizona’s medicare and the children who qualify for the KidsCare program Arizona will have to pay $3.8 billion the next three years. Arizona does not have the money, but why should that be a concern in today’s environment of buy now and have our children and grandchildren.
Normally the Arizona Attorney General would represent the state and file a lawsuit to over turn a law, but Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard punted. On March 29, 2010, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard reiterated his refusal to do his job as the attorney for the State of Arizona and cause Arizona to sue to hold Obamacare unconstitutional. Goddard is a Democrat who favors government control of the health care system regardless of the cost to Arizona taxpayers. The AG also says “
“Constitutional experts across the country have reviewed the law and the claims made in the lawsuit and have concluded that those claims are legally weak and have little chance to prevail. This conclusion is shared by many scholars on the conservative side, who see the lawsuit as much more about politics than the law.”
Sixteen states have now sued to overturn Obamacare, and are apparently unaware that the constitutional pundits like former Phoenix City Mayor Terry Goddard have proclaimed that Obamacare is constitutional and the matter is settled. In refusing to do his job and sue on behalf of Arizona, Terry Goddard will cause Arizona to spend even more money that it does not have if it must hire outside legal counsel.
Before concluding that a lawsuit is futile, Mr. Goddard should read Georgetown University School of Law Professor Randy Barnett’s post called “New York Times Forum: “Is the Health Care Law Unconstitutional?” in which he discusses the constitutionality of Obamacare. I like the part where Professor Barnett says that many learned law professors speculated that the Supreme Court would uphold two federal laws, but “The professoriate was shocked when both laws were held unconstitutional because they exceeded Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause.”
There is a dirty little secret about constitutional law that Terry Goddard, the main stream media and pundits don’t like or don’t want to mention. I learned the secret when I took a year of constitutional law in law school, read way too many U.S. Supreme Court case opinions and listened to the conlaw professor try to explain the court’s logic. I am sure that Mr. Goddard knows the dirty secret about constitutional law, but he doesn’t want to mention it because the secret would blow a hole in his claim that it would be a waste of time to sue because all the constitutional scholars said that there is no chance that Obamacare would be found to be unconstitutional. The secret is - when faced with any case on any issue, the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court will do what ever it wants to do – the heck with precedent – and then write an opinion that justifies its decision.
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As a resident of Arizona, I take this very seriously. Our state is in trouble, and too many programs are being cut.