State of Washington to stay in Florida Obamacare litigation, at least for the time being…
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 1:43PM The Washington Supreme Court ruled today, that the City of Seattle cannot prevent the Washington State Attorney General McKenna from participating in the Florida state litigation opposing Obamacare in the name of, and on behalf of, the State of Washington. The Court denied a motion for a writ of mandamus, which would have directed Attorney General McKenna to withdraw the State of Washington from the litigation.
The court ruled that the writ of mandamus is not available because the Attorney General has no clear duty to withdraw the State of Washington from the federal litigation. The Court also noted that the Attorney General had statutory authority to participate on behalf of the State.
The Court did not address whether or not the Attorney General would have to withdraw the State of Washington in the event that he and Governor Gregoire disagreed on whether or not to participate in the litigation, and the Governor initiated a petition for writ of mandamus to compel removal of the State.