80 GOP lawmakers sign on to lawsuit challenging health care law

80 Republican state lawmakers have signed on to an Amicus Brief that challenges the federal health care law. The brief means lawmakers are lending their support to a challenge to the law in U.S. District Court in Florida. The suit challenges the cosntitutionality of the individual mandate that requires everyone in the U.S. to have health insurance.

"State Legislators take an oath to uphold our state and federal Constitution, and it is our duty to not be complicit in allowing the federal government to violate the Commerce Clause and Tenth Amendment-no matter how good or bad the legislation is," said Rep. Westrom in a news release. "Today, we are defending states' rights and standing up for individual freedoms our Constitution intentionally intended to reserve to the people and states."

This isn't the first Amicus Brief filed by a Republican from Minnesota. Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty filed a similar brief in November.

Democracts, including Attorney General Lori Swanson, say the federal health care is constitutional because the federal government has the right to regulate health insurance under the interstate commerce clause.

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