Here’s the kickoff for the second quarter….

According to an article on REUTERS, “Virginia’s attorney general said he plans to sue the federal government over the healthcare reform legislation, saying Congress lacks authority to force people to buy health insurance.”

Over at CNN, they report 10 other states plan to sue as well. (Florida, Alabama, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington.)

The gist of the state’s lawsuits is that the federal government can not force people to buy health insurance and this federal mandate conflicts with some of their pre-existing state laws as well.

Bill McCollum, the Republican attorney general of Florida, said in the CNN article “There’s no way we can do what’s required in this bill and still provide for education, for foster care, for the incarceration of prisoners, all the other things that are in this bill.”

In the same CNN article, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said “the Obama administration expected to win any lawsuits filed against the health care bill.”

Maybe the feds will throw Gonzales v. Raich up as their defense, but they can also just drop the “mandatory” insurance part and tax everyone flat out to sidestep this lawsuit.

I’ll be at the concession stand.

The Reuters story about Virginia is here and the CNN story about the additional states is here.