Legal News

Health-Care Battle Spreading to Governors and State AGs

By Ashby Jones

A post by Eric Lipman over at Legal Blog Watch alerted us to an interesting subplot playing out in the larger drama of the legal challenges to the health-care bill. (Click here for all our posts on that.)

Writes Lipman:

[T]here hasn’t been a lot of focus on the internal political rifts that seem to be muddying the waters in at least a couple of states as to whether they wish to participate in the challenge. In Nevada, the attorney general is resisting the governor’s demands to hop on the bandwagon. And in Michigan, vice versa.

In both cases, the question is the same. Is the governor the client, and the AG ultimately subject to his or her demands? Or does the AG, as the state’s chief legal officer, have some room to exercise independent judgment.

In Washington State, things are getting particularly interesting. The Seattle Times reports on Friday that Democratic Governor Chris Gregoire (pictured) says she’d consider a budget maneuver blocking Attorney General Rob McKenna from spending state money to join the lawsuit filed by 13 state AGs on Tuesday.

That said, Gregoire seems happy to spend a little money to help U.S. AG Eric Holder defend the bill. Said Gregoire to the Seattle Times:

I’m in contact with the U.S. attorney general to ask, as he defends the action in Florida (where the lawsuit was filed), how would we best help him in the defense of the action. Would he like us to intervene? Would he like us to file an amicus brief? I want to make sure I’m working in concert with them.

Photo: Getty

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 26, 2010 (boomark / email).