Attorneys general in 13 states are threatening legal action, if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi don’t remove Nebraska’s Medicaid deal from the federal health care reform bill, according to a letter sent to The Associated Press Wednesday.

“We believe this provision is constitutionally flawed,” wrote South Carolina AG Henry McMaster and 12 other state attorneys general. The letter was addressed to Pelosi and Reid and delivered to them Wednesday.

“As chief legal officers of our states, we are contemplating a legal challenge to this provision, and we ask you to take action to render this challenge unnecessary by striking that provision,” they wrote.

In a rare Christmas Eve vote, holdout Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) traded his vote for an estimated $100 million earmark, dubbed the “Corn Husker Kickback,” to pay for Nebraska’s expanded Medicaid program. All states are required to fund an expanded Medicaid program, under the new bill.

In the days following the vote, even Nebraskans wondered if Reid’s sweetheart deal for the corn husker state violated the Constitution, as well as federal bribery laws.

“Equality before the law” is Nebraska’s state motto. “Is there anyone out there who will sue the state of Nebraska and/or Senators Ben Nelson and Harry Reid?” asked Patricia Rief-Heskett, chairman of Nebraska’s Republican Party, following the vote. “Why should the state of Nebraska not have to pay for the unfunded mandate of Medicaid, and all the other states have to pay for Nebraska’s portion? Are we just to sit by and watch all of our freedoms taken away, to live in a country with no laws, that has only to abide by a Congress who would buy out votes, whether or not it is lawful?”

Apparently not one but 13 states agreed with Rief-Heskett. The letter threatening legal action was signed by top prosecutors in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington state.

“Because this provision has serious implications for the country and the future of our nation’s legislative process, we urge you to take appropriate steps to protect the Constitution and the rights of the citizens of our nation,” the attorneys general wrote.

Last week Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) questioned the earmark, which they said was incorporated into the bill to win Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson’s vote. Rief-Heskett said the deal Nelson made violates federal laws, as well as the Constitution of the United States. She cited several references, including:

Article 1, Section 9: `No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another.’

Article 4, Section 4: `The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a Republican form of Government.’

US code Title 18 201, Titled “Bribery of Public Officials and Witnesses,” Section B: `Whoever directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of value to any public official (officials is defined as a member of Congress, Delegate or Resident Commissioner) … with intent (a) to influence any official act; or (b) to influence such public official or person who has been selected to be a public official to commit or aid in committing, or colluding, or ally any fraud or make opportunity for the commission of any fraud on the United States.”

Beginning next year, a conference committee must work out a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the bill. Talks could last a month, analysts predict.

Nebraska is just one of 15 states that received preferential treatment in return for votes in favor of Reid’s health care reform bill on Christmas Eve.