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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.
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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