LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today announced she has joined a 20-state coalition urging a federal district court in Texas to hold the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, unconstitutional and to prohibit the entire law.
“Obamacare has been an overreaching, unconstitutional burden for all Americans from its inception,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “For too long the federal government has mandated Arkansas’s health care without regard for the medical care Arkansans desire or can afford. It’s time for this act to be rightfully held unconstitutional so that Americans can again be free to select the health coverage best suited to their needs.”
The complaint explains that Obamacare forces an unconstitutional and irrational regime onto the states and their citizens. In NFIB v. Sebelius, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly upheld the individual mandate, the core provision of Obamacare, as a “tax.” However, Congress has recently repealed this tax, while leaving the mandate in place. Since the Supreme Court has already held that Congress has no authority to impose such a mandate on Americans, absent invoking its taxing authority, the Obamacare mandate is now unconstitutional. Because the unconstitutional mandate is an integral part of Obamacare, the entire law must be struck down.
Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the coalition’s brief in a federal district court in Texas. In addition to Arkansas, other states participating are Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.
About Attorney General Leslie Rutledge
Leslie Carol Rutledge is the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas. She is the first woman and first Republican in Arkansas history to be elected to the office. Since taking office, she has begun a Mobile Office program, a Military and Veterans Initiative, a Metal Theft Prevention program and a Cooperative Disability Investigations program. She has led efforts to teach internet safety, combat domestic violence and make the office the top law firm for Arkansans. Rutledge serves as Chairwoman of the Republican Attorneys General Association and Vice Chairwoman of the National Association of Attorneys General Southern Region. She also re-established and co-chairs the National Association of Attorneys General Committee on Agriculture.
A native of Batesville, she is a graduate of the University of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Rutledge clerked for the Arkansas Court of Appeals, was Deputy Counsel for Gov. Mike Huckabee, served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Lonoke County and subsequently was an Attorney at the Department of Human Services before serving as Counsel at the Republican National Committee. Rutledge and her husband, Boyce, have a home in Pulaski County and a farm in Crittenden County.
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