33 GOP SENATORS SUPPORT THE CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE OF OBAMACARE

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 32 other GOP senators officially filed a brief on Thursday, 11/18/2010 in favor of a court case challenging healthcare reform.

McConnell filed a 16-page brief in a federal case based in Florida arguing that a key part of the new healthcare law, the requirement that all individuals have health insurance, was unconstitutional.

“Where, as in this case with respect to the [health bill]‟s individual mandate, Congress legislates without authority, it damages its institutional legitimacy and precipitates divisive federalism conflicts like the instant litigation,” McConnell wrote in the filing. “The long term harms that the PPACA may do to our governmental institutions and
constitutional architecture are at least as important as are the
specific consequences of the PPACA.”

The senators who signed onto the brief are:

Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), John Ensign (R-Nev.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), George LeMieux (R-Fla.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Pat Roberts (R-Utah), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), John Thune (R-S.D.), David Vitter (R-La.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

GOP Senators who didn’t sign the brief are: Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Robert Bennett (R-Utah), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), George Voinovich (R-Ohio).

No Republican senators-elect signed onto the amicus curiae filing since the brief is an official Senate communication, and none of the new members are sworn in.