Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli’s health-care lawsuit dismissed by 4th Circuit

RICHMOND — In a major setback to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II, a federal appeals court on Thursday tossed out one of the most prominent challenges to the new federal health-care law.

Cuccinelli (R), the nation’s first attorney general to file a lawsuit challenging the 2010 law, immediately announced that he would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond found that Virginia lacked standing to sue. The panel’s unanimous decision, which did not address the merits of the case, overturns a lower-court ruling that the law’s mandate that practically all Americans obtain health insurance or pay a penalty is unconstitutional.

In a second but divided opinion, the panel also dismissed a separate suit filed by several individuals and Liberty University, a private Christian university in Lynchburg.

Cuccinelli has garnered significant national attention since being sworn in last year for suing a federal government that he argues often overreaches — on health care, global warming and the ability to regulate greenhouse gases. His actions have made him a tea party favorite who regularly appears on Fox News and, more recently, has been courted by Republican presidential candidates.

“Our disappointment not only stems from the fact that the court ruled against us but also that the court did not even reach the merits on the key question of Virginia’s lawsuit — whether Congress has a power never before recognized in American history: the power to force one citizen to purchase a good or service from another citizen,” he said.

Cuccinelli filed the lawsuit to much fanfare minutes after President Obama signed the health -care legislation into law on March 23, 2010.

“He made a hell of a mistake,’’ said state Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), who opposed the lawsuit. “He thought he would make a huge impact. . . . It didn’t work out.”

Others had encouraged Cuccinelli to join 26 other states that are attempting to stop the health-care law, but he chose to go it alone, arguing that Virginia had a right to challenge the federal law because it conflicts with a state law making it illegal to require Virginians to purchase insurance.

Not so, said the 4th Circuit judges — all of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents, including two by Obama.

Mark Rozell, a political scientist at George Mason University, said that Cuccinelli will continue to have his critics who think his actions are based on ideology but that “the true believers” will see him as a hero for standing up to the system.

Mark Kevin Lloyd, chairman of the Virginia Federation of Tea Party Patriots, a statewide umbrella group, said the court decision just showed that Cuccinelli was correct when he speaks about activist judges.

“It’s just part of the fight,’’ Lloyd said. “Cuccinelli put the case together, and it went all the way to the 4th Circuit. He’s doing his job.”

In February, Cuccinelli and Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) asked that the U.S. Supreme Court immediately review the case, a rare legal request to bypass appeals and seek early intervention from the nation’s highest court. The court declined.