To a packed house.

From The Columbian:

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna predicted Thursday that a multistate challenge to last year’s federal health care reform law could reach the U.S. Supreme Court next year or in 2013, ahead of the scheduled implementation date of the highly contested law.

McKenna, speaking at a packed lunchtime meeting of the Battle Ground Chamber of Commerce at the city’s community center, said the legal challenge against a mandate for universal health care coverage turns on the central question of federal authority. “It’s the most important case involving federal power of our lifetime,” the second-term Republican said.

McKenna has come under attack from some Democrats, including Gov. Chris Gregoire, for signing onto a challenge by almost two dozen states to the health care reform law. The attorney general typically represents state officials or agencies, but he is allowed by state law to bring lawsuits independently on behalf of the state’s residents.

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