Diane Andrade, director of the Washington office at the Center for Consumer Freedom. “But there are real consequences of refusing to buy private health insurance as part of your health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and that is something she is going to have to confront.”

And there’s more: She has the right to an appeal. But the chances that the state will actually hear the case are slim. After all:

In Colorado, the Health & Human Services Department and the attorney general have been together in arguing that the state has constitutional right to regulate the state’s health care insurance programs.

The state has also filed its own complaint against the federal government, pointing out that the administration is refusing to abide by the individual mandate. The administration won’t give states the funding for the individual mandate if they enforce their own market regulations.

And Colorado has a precedent for suing the federal government over noncompliance with the individual mandate. In 2012, the state found that the federal government had committed a “flagrant disregard for the law” by not complying with the provisions of the health care law called the Affordable Care Act. In the process, the state went to court seeking to enforce the law against the federal government’s attempt to undercut it.

The plaintiffs in Colorado’s case could conceivably file similar lawsuits against the federal government for noncompliance with Obamacare, as well.

What’s a “doable” lawsuit?

Under the Affordable Care Act, states can get relief from the individual mandate through lawsuits if they can prove that it is an unreasonable burden or fails to serve a relevant government interest.

The idea is that if the individual mandate is too much like the taxation and regulation of private health insurance, it could turn into a system of fines and punishments.

Since Colorado’s state appeals are on hold, the state is free to file a lawsuit in federal court, a much higher standard than it has previously had to meet. But if they don’t succeed in getting a decision by Feb. 23, at least the case isn’t dead in the water yet.