Health care reform challenges promised by states

Even before health care reform legislation was passed Sunday night, Republican lawmakers on the floor of the House of Representatives promised a constitutional challenge of the bill led by the states. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster made the promise real Sunday night by saying that South Carolina was joining with Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum to challenge the "constitutionality of this profoundly unwise legislation."

There are two key provisions the attorneys general plan to question: one is the individual mandate to buy insurance, and the second is the rule of state sovereignty. They plan to question whether the government has the right to require individuals to purchase a product from a private company. The same question was asked in Massachusetts after its health care bill was signed into law requiring the citizens of Massachusetts to buy health insurance. So far, judges have dismissed these lawsuits.