One of the most vulnerable Democrats to vote for the health-care bill is North Dakota’s Earl Pomeroy. Now his home state’s attorney general, Wayne Stenehjem, is joining 14 other state attorneys general in challenging the bill as unconstitutional.

“The U.S. Constitution grants enumerated and limited authority to the federal government,” Stenehjem said. “It may only act in areas that are specifically permitted. In enacting this legislation, Congress stretches its authority under the commerce clause beyond the limit.”
North Dakota’s attorney general called the individual mandate “unprecedented” as Congress, under the Commerce Clause, has never required Americans to purchase a particular good or service, “and it certainly has never claimed the commerce clause regulates citizens who decline to participate in the marketplace by refusing to purchase goods or services.”

Can Pomeroy sell North Dakotans on the individual mandate this fall?