Jim Zeigler - Challenge To New Medicaid Nursing Home Restrictions

Challenge To New Medicaid Nursing Home Restrictions

On February 8, 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA). Among other changes, the Act placed serious restrictions on senior citizens seeking to qualify for Medicaid to cover their nursing home costs. Five days later, Zeigler filed a federal lawsuit seeking to void the law. He alleged that one version of the bill had passed the U.S. Senate and a different version passed the U.S. House. (By the Presentment Clause of the Constitution, the identical bill must be passed both houses and be signed by the President to become law.) The bill signed by the President had passed the Senate but not the House.

Over the next six months, five other federal suits were filed challenging the constitutionality of the DRA. An all-star cast of plaintiffs challenging the DRA included Ralph Nader's Public Citizen, eleven members of congress, seventeen Tennessee hospitals, a New York student loan company and Zeigler.

By July 2007, all the DRA lawsuits had been dismissed except for Zeigler's. It too was later dismissed under an 1890's precedent holding that whatever the officers of the two houses of congress certify as having passed cannot be questioned by the judiciary.