Kansas Attorney General-elect announces plans to fight health law in court

The Associated Press/Wichita Eagle: "Attorney General-elect Derek Schmidt promised Tuesday that within days of taking office, he will bring Kansas into a legal challenge of the federal health care law approved earlier this year. Schmidt said he's already consulting with other attorneys general about existing lawsuits in federal courts. A Republican, he takes office Jan. 10. … Schmidt, the Kansas Senate's majority leader, unseated Democratic incumbent Steve Six, who had refused to have Kansas join other states in challenging the health care law" (Hanna, 11/17).

The Associated Press/Bloomberg Businessweek: The Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based advocacy group "is asking a federal judge for a preliminary injunction to block ... a provision [in the federal health law] that would restrict Congress' ability to repeal a new board" that will "set Medicare policy and health care payment rates" (11/17).

Stateline.org: "Though a lawsuit filed by state attorneys general over the Obama administration's new health care law is receiving the lion's share of media attention, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers also wants its voice heard in the court battle — in support of the controversial legislation. Seventy-one legislators from 26 states have asked for permission to file a legal brief in support of the health care law, according to The Hill, a congressional newspaper in Washington. The group includes representatives from a dozen states where the governor or the attorney general is already formally lined up against the law" (Gramlich, 11/17).