News Releases

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - Senior United States District Judge Roger Vinson today granted the motion adding Ohio and five more additional states as party plaintiffs in the lawsuit pending in the federal court for the Northern District of Florida challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted healthcare law. The Judge's ruling states that he will not require the federal defendants to file new answers to the complaint, so the addition of the new parties will not delay the case in any way.

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) -- Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today that he has been notified that the plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted healthcare law in federal court in Florida today filed a motion for leave to amend the complaint to add Ohio as a party plaintiff in that case. DeWine gave authority for that challenge last Monday, on his first day in office.

The motion seeks to add Ohio to the states involved in State of Florida, et al., v. United States Department of Heath and Human Services, et. al. In addition to Ohio, the motion seeks to add Kansas, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Maine, and Iowa to the growing number of states challenging the law, potentially bringing the total number of states in the case to 26. In a separate challenge, by the Commonwealth of Virginia, a federal judge already held part of the act unconstitutional.

"Our Constitution provides for a federal government of significant, but defined and limited powers," DeWine said.  "By ignoring the constitutional limits on federal power, the healthcare law tramples on the rights of Ohio's citizens.  We need to defend the checks and balances that our Constitution creates through its divisions of power and protect the people of Ohio from this huge federal overreach."

Watch the swearing-in ceremony of Mike DeWine to become the new Ohio Attorney General.

COLUMBUS – Mike DeWine, surrounded by family and friends in front of the Lincoln at Vicksburg Memorial in the historic Ohio Statehouse Rotunda, took the oath of office as Ohio's Attorney General. His eldest son Pat, a Judge of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, administered the oath, as his wife, Fran, held the Bible. Thomas M. Rose, Judge for the United States District Court of Southern Ohio, and DeWine's former law partner, also presided.