Law Prof. Randy Barnett: Michigan AG Mike Cox could get parts of Obamacare overturned

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox’s legal challenge to sweeping federal health care legislation is a “serious constitutional claim” that has been too airily dismissed by law scholars, according to a Georgetown University law professor recruited by Cox to speak to reporters today.

Randy Barnett, a Carmack Waterhouse legal theory professor, said there is a realistic possibility the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately could invalidate several of the new law’s key provisions as congressional overreach.

Congress has never asserted in history the authority to require individuals to make a specific purchase or be fined, Barnett said, as the health care legislation would under a mandate that all American citizens have insurance or pay a fee to the government.

He said new regulations imposed on states as a condition of receiving Medicaid payments was also vulnerable.

Cox is among at least 14 attorneys general nationwide who are challenging the constitutionality of the new health care legislation. Cox filed his challenge March 26.