In 2010, Cuccinelli filed a lawsuit (Virginia v. Sebelius) in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), claiming that it exceeded the Federal government's power under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution.[18][19] He was the first attorney general to file a lawsuit against the ACA.[19] During his 2013 run for Governor, Cuccinnelli opposed Medcaid expansion.[19] The lawsuit was unsuccessful.[20][21]
Cuccinelli Files Lawsuit Against EPA: Attorney General Wants Virginia Out of Clean Air Act
In 2010, Cuccinelli filed a federal lawsuit (Virginia v. Sebelius) challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), claiming that it exceeded the federal government's power under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution.[7][8] He was the first attorney general to file a lawsuit against the ACA.[8] During his 2013 run for governor, Cuccinelli opposed the ACA's Medicaid expansion.[8] The lawsuit was unsuccessful.[9][10]
His anti-government sentiment was also, whether by design or coincidence, a pro-corporate one. Since 2005, the previous attorney general had been working on a lawsuit against 14 Arkansas-based poultry producers who, he alleged, had polluted the Illinois River. Pruitt, who had taken more than $40,000 from the chicken farmers, according to reporting by StateImpact Oklahoma, the NPR-affiliated state-government reporting project, halted the lawsuit. Even if he claimed to be acting on principle, that principle frequently aligned with the desires of his political benefactors: Koch Industries, Chevron, Pfizer, Altria. 2ff7e9595c
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