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While the country continues to debate the Obama health-care overhaul, two lawyers are doing their best to stop the plan from coming to fruition. David Rivkin and Lee Casey, two powerful Washington D.C. lawyers, have filed a challenge against the law in Florida. Their lawsuit was lodged on behalf of 20 state attorneys general, and has become one of the most closely watched cases in the ongoing political debate about health care and health care reform.Mr. Rivkin, along with Blaine Winship, an assistant attorney general in Florida, is scheduled to defend the lawsuit in front of U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson. As Mr. Rivkin said, “This is one of the most important Constitutional challenges in history.”The authors of the lawsuit believe that nothing in the Constitution allows Congress to have the power to require individuals to own health insurance. They believe that the health care reform is just one example that could set a dangerous precedent impairing individual liberties.Legal experts are divided about the strength and legitimacy of the lawsuit. The Obama administration already lodged a challenge to the suit, saying that the Constitution’s Commerce Clause allows Congress the power to pass the law. The government also argues that the states that are filing the suit have no standing for their suit, since the law has yet to harm them.Mr. Rivkin is not fazed by the criticism. As he explains, “The states’ sovereign authority is being trammeled upon by the federal government.”
