LITTLE ROCK — Secure Arkansas today announced it has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health-care overhaul signed into law last month by President Barack Obama.
Jeannie Burlsworth, chairman of the group, said the law's requirement that everyone buy health insurance or face a fine is in violation of the Constitution.
"We believe as citizens of this state and of this nation that we have been left no choice (but) to face this challenge and to fight for the future of our children and grandchildren," she said at a news conference. "This should not have been a partisan issue. This health-care law would seek to impose an unprecedented mandate by the federal government while chipping away at the Constitution and the belief that limited government is good government."
Burlsworth said the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, asks the court to find the law unconstitutional and to prevent it from being implemented. The group is also asking the court to certify all Arkansans as members of the suit.
The decision to file comes after Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel declined to pursue a lawsuit, saying such an effort would be unlikely to succeed, frivolous and more to do "with politics than the law."
Burlsworth said her group believes otherwise.
"We've been told that our actions, as well as those of 20 other states, are frivolous and without merit," she said. "I tell you now that we would not be going down this road if we didn't believe in our hearts that we have a case."