Colorado Attorney General joining a national lawsuit against HCR

[DearAbby]

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers is joining a national lawsuit to try to block federal health care legislation -- over the objections of Gov. Bill Ritter and the Democrats who control the state Legislature.

Suthers said Monday he would join fellow Republican attorneys general in at least nine other states in opposing the bill because he thinks a provision requiring most Americans to purchase insurance is an unconstitutional expansion of federal power. Congress has the right to control interstate commerce but can't force people to participate in commerce, he said.

"Never before has Congress compelled Americans, under the threat of economic sanction, to purchase a particular product or service as a condition of living in this country," Suthers said.

Republican state lawmakers had called on him earlier in the day to join the lawsuit. But Suthers, the only Republican elected to statewide office, said he reached his decision on his own and said it wasn't politically motivated.

Melissa Hart, associate professor at the University of Colorado and director of the Byron White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law, disagreed with Suthers' interpretation.

"I think it's a very radical interpretation of the 10th Amendment," Hart said. "I think it will fail and I think it's very political."

Hart says the language in the 10th Amendment is very open-ended and could mean a lot of different things, but added that Suthers' interpretation was "very aggressive."

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