Republican lawmakers upset about the federal health care reform law are taking their concerns to court.

The lawmakers have filed a friend-of-the-court brief alleging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 violates states’ rights by exerting “control over state budgets and legislative agendas,” reads a news release from the office of Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham.

Berger is president pro tempore of the state Senate.

“It is a shame we had to file this brief because our governor and attorney general refused to defend the constitutional rights of North Carolinians,” Berger said in the release. “The federal government has encroached on individual liberties and states’ rights. We will not roll over when federal authorities abuse their power and pass unconstitutional laws.”

Berger was echoed by Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, House majority leader.

“North Carolinians are citizens,” Stam said in a separate news release. “They are not subjects of Washington, D.C. who can be ordered under threat of fines and penalties to buy things they do not want and cannot afford.”

Stam was referring to a provision of the law requiring people to begin buying health insurance in 2014.

Stam and Berger are represented in the brief, as are House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, and Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, Senate majority leader.

The GOP’s legal maneuvering follows Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto of the Protect Health Care Freedom bill, a state measure that would have directed N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper to challenge the federal law.

Media reports showed Cooper and Perdue opposed the state measure. Cooper argued the health-care law was constitutional until declared otherwise by a federal court.

The GOP-led legal challenge was filed by the state of Florida, through Attorney General Pam Bondi, with a friend-of-the-court brief from legislators in Minnesota and North Carolina.

Friend-of-the-court, or amicus curiae, briefs are documented arguments volunteered by parties who may or may not have been invited by a court to weigh in on a legal issue.

Court documents list as defendants in this case the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and others.

The case was appealed to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

In January, a U.S. District Court judge in Florida ruled the health-care law is unconstitutional, basing his finding on the individual mandate to buy health insurance.

The Obama administration appealed the judge’s ruling.

Sen. Stan White, D-Dare, represents Beaufort County and seven other northeast counties in the state Senate.

White said he didn’t know enough about the brief to comment on it directly, but he generally opposed state resistance to the federal law.

“I think that regardless of how you feel about the health-care bill, I think it was a waste of taxpayers’ money to direct the attorney general to file a suit on North Carolina’s behalf,” White commented. “It’s not going to be settled by any issue that any state develops or brings forward. It’s going to be resolved in federal court somewhere. The cost to this state in the situation that we’re in right now financially, I just think that money could be spent a lot better.”

Citing media reports, White added, “Personally I think (the legal action is) a waste of time and energy.”

A call seeking comment from state Rep. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, wasn’t immediately returned Thursday.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was given final approval by the U.S. Senate on Christmas Eve 2009.

The act would ensure coverage of about 94 percent of Americans under age 65, according to the White House website and other websites.

Republicans campaigning for state legislative seats in 2010 made it clear they would make turning back the health-care law’s effects on North Carolina one of their priorities.