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SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah's attorney general is preparing to joins a lawsuit that challenges the Senate's massive health care reform bill. Utah is one of 10 conservative states prepared to challenge the health care bill.
The reasoning behind the suit goes way beyond the cost of the legislation. The attorneys general, including Utah's Mark Shurtleff, say there are constitutional questions. Even more, they say the so-called Nebraska compromise part of the deal smells of corruption.
It's just one aspect of the Senate's health care reform bill that has motivated 10 states to start researching legal action.
The states are researching a constitutional challenge of whether requiring every American to buy something -- in this case health insurance -- is legal. They also have constitutional questions about mandating state legislatures to enact portions of the bill.
"That's unprecedented. State legislatures can't be mandated by the federal government to do anything," Swallow says.
For health care advocates, those specific questions are not an issue. The federal government already requires auto insurance, says Judi Hilman, with the Utah Health Policy Project.
"We have to be careful in trying to solve a problem that's immediate today, not give up our rights as people and our rights as a state," Swallow says.
In spite of differences about the federal mandates, there is widespread agreement in Utah about the Nebraska compromise: Most people KSL News spoke with feel it's a bad deal and sets a bad precedent.
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Story compiled with contributions from Richard Piatt and Paul Nelson.
