Texas Democrats Defend Federal Health Reform

Texas, via its Republican leadership, has already joined the two-dozen other states challenging the constitutionality of federal health care reform before the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, 27 Democratic Texas lawmakers have signed on to try to defend it. 

They join some 480 state lawmakers from across the country who are filing briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the measure, which they believe will expand access to health insurance in places like Texas, where there are currently more than 6 million people without coverage, many of them children. 

"My colleagues and I are filing these briefs with the Supreme Court to make sure that we speak up on behalf of our constituents, so that their needs don't fall victim to partisan attempts to knock down this law," state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said in an email.

Opponents of the federal law, like Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, have argued that the key tenet of the reform — forcing people to carry health insurance — is an unconstitutional overreach.