By AP
Oklahoma City, OK – Okla. AG challenges federal health care overhaul
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Oklahoma has joined the growing roster of states with lawsuits against the federal health care legislation.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt brought the legal challenge on the state's behalf Friday in U.S. District Court in Muskogee. It makes Oklahoma the 28th state to challenge the constitutionality of the individual mandate provision of the federal health care act.
Pruitt filed the lawsuit less than two weeks after he was sworn in as attorney general on Jan. 10. Among other things, it questions whether Congress is empowered to require citizens to purchase health insurance coverage or be penalized for not doing so.
The lawsuit was filed less than a year after former Attorney General Drew Edmondson said he would not challenge the health care law. Edmondson said it had little chance of success and would be "largely an exercise in futility."