U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have joined other GOP lawmakers in supporting a Florida lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the national health care law.

Snowe and Collins, both Maine Republicans, this week signed an amicus brief — a supporting statement — in the lawsuit along with more than two dozen congressional Republicans. The suit specifically targets the new law’s individual mandate, the controversial provision that requires everyone who can afford health coverage to buy it or face a penalty.

A spokesperson for Snowe said her decision to join the lawsuit was consistent with her efforts to weaken or eliminate the individual mandate, even though the senator at one time supported the health care bill in committee.

“She’s always had concerns with the individual mandate,” said John Gentzel, Snowe’s communication’s director. “She did what she could throughout to oppose, to strike or delay (the mandate’s) inclusion in the bill.”

During the health care debate, Snowe was one of a group of Republicans who Democrats and the Obama administration believed would support the health care bill. She eventually voted against the legislation.

Gentzel rejected suggestions that Snowe’s move was a political calculation to appease the hardliners in the GOP, despite a poll indicating that Maine Republicans want a more conservative candidate in 2012, and a recent statement by a member of Maine’s Tea Party Patriots that she’ll have a tea party challenger in that year’s primary.

Gentzel said the senator saw no distinction between opposing the individual mandate and supporting a lawsuit that could lead to an eventual overturning of the health care law.

“I don’t know what the difference is,” Gentzel said. “This is another way of doing away with that penalty. She’s not tacking any way. This is not a shift for her.”

Snowe and Collins, along with most Republicans, have voiced opposition to the individual mandate. So far, 30 GOP lawmakers have signed the amicus brief in the Florida case.

“As I asserted during the debate on this legislation, the individual mandate has no place in a health care reform bill unless and until affordable health insurance is available for all Americans,” Snowe said in a prepared statement. “That is why I offered an amendment in committee that would have tempered down the severity of the individual mandate and filed an amendment on the Senate floor to strike it entirely from the bill.”

She added, “We must take seriously the gravity of this imperious and intrusive government mandate and repeal the individual mandate before millions of Americans are forced to purchase health care coverage that they neither want nor can afford.”

Even though Republicans have taken over the U.S. House of Representatives, the party doesn’t have enough power to the overturn the health care bill through congressional action. Instead, Republicans in Congress and state attorneys general have joined the Florida lawsuit in the hopes of overturning the law.

Florida’s suit was joined by 20 states. A separate action filed by Virginia is before a federal judge there.

A U.S. judge in Michigan has found the law is constitutional. Another U.S. District judge in Virginia has reportedly said that the trial court cases in Florida and Virginia are essentially a layover before appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Virginia and Florida each filed lawsuits within minutes of Obama signing the health care bill, claiming the individual mandate to buy health insurance exceeds Congress’ authority.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already declined to hear one California group’s attempt to repeal the bill.

U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud, both Maine Democrats, voted in favor of the health care bill.

smistler@sunjournal.com

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