Maricopa County Superior Court judge Katherine Cooper will hear arguments in a lawsuit seeking to block Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan early next month.
Judge Katherine Cooper set December 9 at 11:00 a.m. as the date and time to hear the suit filed September 12 on behalf of 36 Republican state lawmakers and a pair of citizens.
The suit targets the plan to expand the state’s health care program to about 300,000 additional Arizonans in support of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The conservative GOP lawmakers argue that the expansion bill, which includes a hospital assessment that will be used to pay the state’s costs, is a tax that required a 2/3 vote of the Legislature under the State Constitution.
Brewer’s lawyers are asking Judge Cooper to throw out the lawsuit. They say the plaintiffs do not have standing to sue, and allowing lawmakers to sue could be used to stop any law if it moves forward.