Mississippi Has Entered Into Healthcare Lawsuit
The Clarion Ledger reports that Gov. Haley Barbour on Friday joined the multi-state lawsuit
challenging the constitutionality of the nation's new health care law.
"The health care law
passed earlier this year is an unprecedented expansion of federal
power," Barbour said in a statement.
"The Constitution does not give Congress or the
federal government the authority to force every American to purchase
health insurance."
Barbour's
office said Florida, lead plaintiff in the case, reached agreement with
its legal counsel to cap the cost of the litigation at $50,000.
Mississippi will split
its share of that with the other states in the lawsuit.
Mississippi is one of 20 states in the lawsuit.
The AG, a Democrat, has taken the position that suit should not be filed because it is unlikely to succeed. The question that I have is, how is it that the state's lawyer gets to choose what cases his client does and does not prosecute. The AG is the lawyer for the state, but the Governor is the client. Last time that I checked, lawyers don't get to choose not to prosecute cases on behalf of their clients just because they think the case may be unsuccessful, or because the suit is contrary to the lawyer's personal beliefs. Certainly lawyers have the option of not representing a client if they so choose, by resigning as counsel. Instead, we have the odd circumstance where a private lawyer is hired to do the job that another lawyer is already being paid to do.
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Without addressing whether Mississippi should join the multi-state lawsuit, I felt it necessary to address your comment that the AG is the client of the governor. That is a little simplistic. The AG represents the government, not the governor per se. Their powers and responsibilties are more broad.
Consider the AG’s ability/duty to prosecute the governor (something just avoided in South Carolina). While private attorneys don’t get to choose not to prosecute cases on behalf of their clients just because they think the case may be unsuccessful, private attorneys could certainly never prosecute their clients while simultaneously representing them.