COLUMBIA --- South Carolina's attorney general could spend as much as $700,000 on three lawsuits against the federal government that some say are politically motivated, The Greenville News reported Sunday.
Critics say Republican Henry McMaster is playing politics, suing the administration of Democratic President Obama. McMaster and others say it is important to challenge the federal government when it oversteps its power.
McMaster has joined other states in suing the federal government over killing a planned nuclear waste depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the Arizona immigration law and federal health care reform.
Democratic state Sen. John Land said the Arizona and health care lawsuits are a waste of time and money.
"I think our attorney general has enough to do otherwise," he said.
The health care lawsuit seems to be the target of Republican attorneys general across the country, said Harvard Law School professor Charles Fried, a solicitor general under President Reagan.
"I do think the constitutional argument is a joke, not serious," he said.
McMaster disagrees.
"If the Congress can require South Carolinians and others to go out and buy one thing, they can require them to go out and buy another and another, or do all sorts of things that are not allowed under the Constitution," said McMaster.
Legal experts say there is some validity to the states' claims. A recent refusal by a federal judge to dismiss a similar suit filed by Virginia means the states' case will have to be taken seriously, said Randy Barnett, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown Law School.
"Much of what the judge said was very encouraging for the challengers, primarily because the judge said this was an unprecedented use of either the commerce or tax power," he said.
Mark Hall, a professor of law at Wake Forest University, disagrees and thinks the states will lose.
"The main argument is the new federal law requires states to shoulder a large financial burden," Hall said. "And that simply is not factually true. The federal government pays for most of the cost."
The 20 states involved in the case have hired a private law firm, and McMaster said South Carolina's share of the legal costs won't exceed $6,000.
The potentially most expensive lawsuit involves the Yucca Mountain case. State lawmakers have authorized spending up to $665,000. McMaster said he doesn't think it will cost that much.
It is the case that has the greatest potential impact on South Carolina, where tons of spent nuclear fuel are in temporary storage at the Savannah River Site.
For more than 25 years, the Energy Department has pursued plans to bury highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel in tunnels beneath an ancient volcanic ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Obama administration wants to abandon the project.
The third case involves the federal government's efforts to have Arizona's immigration law struck down.
"The Arizona law doesn't attempt to regulate immigration," McMaster said. "It just attempts to help the federal government enforce immigration."
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
