Arkansas staying out of suits considered

Democrats lauded and Republicans panned Arkansas Attorney General Dustin Mc-Daniel’s 2-year-old decision not to sue over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the act is constitutional.

The 5-4 decision upheld the portion of the law requiring all citizens to have health insurance, but held that the federal government cannot deny Medicaid funding to states that don’t comply with a Medicaid expansion required by the act.

An advocacy group and lawmakers began pushing for the state to sue even before President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in March 2010.

McDaniel, a Democrat who has said he intends to run for governor in 2014, refused to involve the state in any lawsuit challenging the health-care law, saying any such suit was unlikely to prevail, would be frivolous and would have more to do “with politics than the law.”

“When the arguments appear to have little or no legal merit, it would be a waste of the state’s resources to pursue that course of action,” Mc-Daniel said in April 2010.

The Supreme Court considered issues raised in two of the multiple suits filed over the act.

The main issues were whether the individual mandate is a valid use of congressional power and whether the act’s expansion of Medicaid coerces states to participate in the program.

“We respect the Court’s decision and we will work closely with the governor’s office to determine the impact of this decision on the state’s Medicaid program,” McDaniel said in a statement released by his office.

Lt. Gov. Mark Darr, a potential Republican opponent to McDaniel in the 2014 governor’s race, said Democrats advocated implementing the act while Republicans opposed doing so.

“Our attorney general and other Democratic legislators were tireless advocates of leaving Obamacare alone; today I tell them the fight over this issue has only begun,” Darr said. “In case the will of the people hasn’t been clear, their message will be solidified in November.”

Darr said this week that he plans to make a decision about running for governor after the November election.

Arkansas House Republican leader Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs said the decision gives Arkansans a clear choice.

“The lack of fight by some in state government on behalf of Arkansans should illustrate who is committed to our people and who is committed to their party,” Westerman said.

Democratic Party of Arkansas spokesman Candace Martin said the party thinks McDaniel made the right decision not to involve the state.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Front Section, Pages 9 on 06/29/2012

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