Idaho signs anti-health-insurance law

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho is leading the charge in a states’-rights push to defeat a proposal in Congress that would require people to buy health insurance, a key reform pushed by President Obama.

Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, a Republican, used a ceremony Wednesday afternoon to become the first governor to sign into law a measure requiring the state attorney general to sue the federal government over any such insurance mandates.

Similar legislation is pending in 37 other states, a point Mr. Otter stressed when asked if the bill he signed can succeed, given constitutional law experts are already saying federal laws would supersede those of states in a U.S. District Court fight.

“The ivory tower folks will tell you, ‘No, they’re not going anywhere,’” he told reporters. “But I’ll tell you what — you get 36 states, that’s a critical mass. That’s a constitutional mass.”

The measures working their ways through statehouses from Missouri to South Carolina reflect a growing frustration with Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul, especially in Republican-dominated regions.

The Democratic president’s proposal would cover some 30 million uninsured people, end insurance practices such as denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, require almost all Americans to get coverage and try to slow the increase in the cost of medical care nationwide.

Democratic leaders hope to vote on the legislation this weekend.

With Washington closing in on a deal in the monthslong battle over health care overhaul, Republican state lawmakers are stepping up opposition.

Last week, Virginia legislators passed a measure similar to Idaho’s new law, but Mr. Otter was the first state chief executive to sign such a bill, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council, which created model legislation for Idaho and other states. The Washington-based nonprofit group promotes limited government.

“Congress is planning to force an unconstitutional mandate on the states,” said Christie Herrera, the group’s health task force director.

Still, David Freeman Engstrom constitutional law expert at Stanford University Law School, said all these measures face significant legal hurdles. Mr. Engstrom said there is the question of whether a state has standing to bring the lawsuit or whether that role is better served by an individual who could show he or she was harmed by the mandate to buy health insurance.

Idaho’s law faces an even bigger challenge, he said, by setting up a direct conflict with the supremacy clause in the U.S. Constitution.

“That language is clear that federal law is supreme over state law,” Mr. Engstrom said, “so it really doesn’t matter what a state legislature says on this.”

Mr. Otter already warned U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, in December that Idaho was considering litigation.

He signed the bill during his first public ceremony of the 2010 Legislature.

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