A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Republican legislators against Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) over her successful push to expand Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The lawsuit contends the Medicaid expansion amounts to a tax, and cites a state constitutional requirement that new taxes be approved by two-thirds of the state legislators. The Medicaid expansion passed with a simple majority in June. The suit also contends the expansion gives the director of Arizona's Medicaid agency an unconstitutional power to levy taxes by deciding which hospitals will be exempt.
"By enacting a tax without the two-thirds majority required by our Constitution, the state has disenfranchised citizens whose representatives opposed the tax," Christina Sandefur, an attorney for Goldwater Institute, the conservative advocacy group pursuing the case on behalf of the legislators, told The Sacramento Bee. "Legislators are beholden to their constituents, but bureaucrats have no such accountability."
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