Rather than wait for his case against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to run the appellate court gauntlet, the attorney general for the commonwealth of Virginia has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments about the legislation now.

“Currently, state governments and private businesses are being forced to expend enormous amounts of resources to prepare to implement a law that, in the end, may be declared unconstitutional,” said the VA AG.

While most of the state governments opposing the health care bill have joined onto the suit originally filed in Florida, Virginia has been fighting the act on its own.

In December, a U.S. District Court judge in Richmond ruled that the section of the law regarding mandatory health coverage was unconstitutional, but upheld the remainder of the act.

A rep for the Justice Dept., which is defending the legislation in these suits, said the agency continued “to believe this case should follow the ordinary course” before being presented to the Supreme Court, especially since the controversial mandatory coverage portion of the bill doesn’t kick in until 2014.

Va. to Ask Supreme Court to Rule on Health Law [NY Times]

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