“It sends a strong message that more than half of the States consider the health care law unconstitutional and are willing to fight it in court,” said Attorney General Bondi. “I look forward to continuing to defend Florida's families and businesses against this unconstitutional law and upholding the Constitution.”

The Florida lawsuit challenges not only the law’s requirement that individuals purchase health insurance or face a penalty, but also its substantial and costly Medicaid expansion. Florida Governor Rick Scott and 32 Governors wrote the White House protesting the “one-size-fits-all” Medicaid approach forces states “to cut other critical programs.”

“Having a majority of the nation’s states involved in this case along with NFIB, who represents more than 350,000 small businesses nationwide, sends a strong message to the courts that this law is detrimental to the entire nation and must be overturned,” said Karen Harned, executive director, NFIB Small Business Legal Center.

Prior to today’s filing, the bipartisan lawsuit included the following states in addition to Florida: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona (Governor, and now Attorney General), Colorado, Georgia (Governor, but now Attorney General ), Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi (Governor), Nebraska, Nevada (Governor), North Dakota, Pennsylvania (Attorney General, but now Governor), South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Washington.

The amended complaint can be found here http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/JFAO-8D8STC/$file/MotiontoFileSecondAmendedComplaint.pdf.