University, local lawmakers file suit over health-care bill

Liberty University sued the federal government Tuesday, saying Congress lacks authority for the “power grab” it makes with the health care bill.

“We are greatly impacted by this law,” said LU Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. “We think it is a travesty, a miscarriage of justice, and we want to challenge it.

“We are honored to take the lead on this,” Falwell said.

Joining LU as plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Del. Kathy Byron, R-Campbell County, Lynchburg City Councilman Jeff Helgeson, whose ward includes LU, and a woman who would be forced to buy insurance under the bill, said Mat Staver, dean of the LU law school and chairman of Liberty Counsel.

Byron stepped in because the General Assembly passed a bill this year declaring that people are entitled to decline health insurance coverage.

“Everyone I talk to in the community is outraged,” Byron said. “We are ready for one of the biggest uproars, I think, in our nation.”

Staver said he believed the university was the first private entity to file a legal challenge against the health care bill. Several state attorneys general, including Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia, filed suits Tuesday after President Obama signed the legislation.

Staver, acting as LU’s lawyer, said the university provides health care to more than 2,500 of its employees, but it would be penalized under the bill because it is self-insured.

LU has more than 5,100 people on its payroll, Falwell said.

“For every person Liberty University insures, including employees, spouses and dependents, LU will have to pay a fee for each one of those, not to the federal government but to some private exchange” of insurance companies, Staver said.

“It will clearly interfere with the private operation of Liberty Universty and become very burdensome,” Staver said.

He also said the bill would pay for abortions. “Make no mistake about that,” Staver said, adding that fees LU would be forced to pay could be used for abortion services. “That is contrary to Liberty’s Christian beliefs,” Staver said.

LU employs about 1,200 students Staver said, and that number could be reduced if it were to be determined that the bill requires the university to provide health insurance for them.

LU’s lawsuit names as defendants Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services.

“Congress lacks the authority to pass this kind of power grab that they have tried to force on the American people,” Staver said, adding that he was convinced the health are bill is doomed and that the U.S. Supreme Court will declare it unconstitutional.

Byron said Congress had reached further into “our private property, private rights and our freedoms” than ever before.

“They think the Tea Party movement was something to contend with,” she said. “You are going to see a movement like you’ve never seen before.”