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 Republicans have repeatedly tried to repeal Obamacare, or the
Affordable Care Act (ACA), since its 2010 passage, and while the
Justice Department would normally defend a federal law, the Trump
administration has declined to defend its constitutionality against
a challenge by 18 Republican-led states.
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general led by California
Attorney General Xavier Becerra stepped into the void to defend the
law. The House intervened after Democrats won control in November's
elections after many focused their campaigns on defending Obamacare.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New
Orleans, including two judges appointed by Republican presidents and
one by a Democrat, will take up a ruling by a federal judge in Texas
last year that the entire ACA was unconstitutional.
An appellate ruling declaring Obamacare unconstitutional could
prompt an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, opening the door for the
top court to take up the issue in the midst of the 2020 U.S.
presidential election.
Obamacare, the signature domestic achievement of Trump's Democratic
predecessor, Barack Obama, has been a political flashpoint since its
passage.
Republican opponents call the law an unwarranted intervention by
government in health insurance markets, while supporters say that
striking it down would put at risk the healthcare of 20 million
people who have gained insurance since its enactment.
In 2012, a divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld most its provisions,
including the individual mandate, which requires people to obtain
insurance or pay a penalty.
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The mandate compelled healthy people to buy insurance to offset
sicker patients' costs after Obamacare barred insurers from denying
coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority argued that Congress could
not constitutionally order people to buy insurance. But Chief
Justice John Roberts joined the court's four liberal members to hold
the mandate was a valid exercise of Congress' tax power.
Republicans in Congress subsequently failed to overturn Obamacare,
but in December 2017, Trump signed into law a tax bill passed by a
Republican-led Congress that reduced the tax penalty to zero
dollars.
A coalition of Republican-led states headed by Texas sued, alleging
the tax penalty's elimination rendered Obamacare unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, agreed in
December 2018, saying the individual mandate was unconstitutional
because it no longer triggered a tax.
O'Connor, nominated by former Republican President George W. Bush,
said that because Obamacare called the mandate "essential," the
entire law must be struck down.
The Justice Department initially argued the mandate was
unconstitutional but most of Obamacare could be severed from it. But
it argues on appeal the law's balance must be struck down.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Scott Malone and Jeffrey
Benkoe)
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