Jill Holtzman Vogel

GOP Lawyer's Latest Gambit: Anti-HCR Bill In Virginia

Zachary Roth | March 8, 2010, 3:35PM

Virginia State Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Winchester)

A Republican state legislator with close ties to the GOP operatives behind a slew of hardball tactics has sponsored and helped pass a bill -- almost certainly unconstitutional -- that prohibits the federal government from forcing the state's citizens to buy health insurance.

The Virginia legislature last week passed legislation, based on a model created by the American Legislative Exchange Council, that declares unconstitutional any effort to require citizens to buy health insurance -- as the health-care reform measures passed by both chambers of the U.S. Congress would do. In the state Senate, the effort was led by Sen. Jill Vogel.

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