Federal Court Rules ObamaCare Unconstitutional, Appeal PlannedBy MARY KAUFFMAN
December 14, 2018
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined by twenty Republican-led states brought the lawsuit. After Trump ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the health law, a coalition of ACA-supporting states took up the defense. The lawsuit was opposed by a coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a former congressman. Democrats contended that the Republican tax law lowered the federal penalty for being uninsured to $0, but did not negate the Affordable Care Act Law’s constitutionality. In the lawsuit, Attorney General Paxton said, “The Supreme Court held Obamacare was only tethered to the Constitution by a very thin thread – the fact that the individual penalty raised some revenue. Congress severed that thin thread with the tax act of 2017, and all of Obamacare must fall.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: "We expect this ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court. Pending the appeal process, the law remains in place." President Donald Trump tweeted that Congress should pass a new law. In his tweet President Trump said today, "As I predicted all along, Obamacare has been struck down as an UNCONSTITUTIONAL disaster! Now Congress must pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions. Mitch and Nancy, get it done!" Democrat Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi said in a prepared statement, “While the district court’s absurd ruling will be immediately appealed, Republicans are fully responsible for this cruel decision and for the fear they have struck into millions of families across America who are now in danger of losing their health coverage. When House Democrats take the gavel, the House of Representatives will move swiftly to formally intervene in the appeals process to uphold the life-saving protections for people with pre-existing conditions and reject Republicans’ effort to destroy the Affordable Care Act.” The American Medical Association called O’Connor’s ruling an “unfortunate step backward for our health system that is contrary to overwhelming public sentiment to preserve pre-existing condition protections.” Pelosi also said in her prepared statement regarding the district court's decision in Republicans’ Texas v. United States lawsuit striking down protections for people with pre-existing conditions and the Affordable Care Act, “Tonight’s district court ruling exposes the monstrous endgame of Republicans’ all-out assault on people with pre-existing conditions and Americans’ access to affordable health care." “The GOP Congress tried and failed to destroy the Affordable Care Act and protections for pre-existing conditions. Then, in the midterm election, the American people delivered a record-breaking margin of almost 10 million votes against House Republicans’ vile assault on health care. Now, the district court ruling in Republicans’ lawsuit seeks to subvert the will of the American people and sow chaos in the final day of HealthCare.gov open enrollment," said Pelosi. The ACA became law on March 23, 2010 with 900-plus pages of legislative text. Quoting the December 14, 2018 court Opinion, Congress intended the ACA to achieve "near-universal" health-insurance coverage and to "lower health insurance premiums" through the "creation of effective health insurance markets" and new statutory requirements for individuals and insurance companies. After the ACA took effect, states, individuals, and businesses challenged its constitutionality in federal courts across the country. One of those cases reached the Supreme Court in 2012. Because the Individual Mandate is impermissible under the Interstate Commerce Clause, the Supreme Court entertained the Government's argument that the mandate could be upheld as constitutional as an exercise of Congress' Tax Power. On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was signed into law thus removing the individual penalty that raised some tax revenue through these penalties.
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