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Federal Judge strikes down Affordable Care Act

I wonder how many anti-ACA will now find themselves without health insurance or huge premium increases due to pre-existing conditons?

A federal judge in Texas has ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, finding that the law cannot stand now that Congress has rolled back the mandate that everyone carry health insurance or pay a fine.

The new ruling poses a significant threat to the Affordable Care Act’s most popular and most sweeping health insurance reforms. If affirmed at higher courts, it could roll back Obamacare’s ban on preexisting conditions. Insurers would once again be able to charge sick patients higher premiums.
The Trump administration had partially supported this lawsuit, filing a brief asking the court to overturn Obamacare’s ban on preexisting conditions.
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Essentially, the state attorneys general are arguing that the individual mandate isn’t severable from the rest of the law. If the court finds the mandate unconstitutional, then the rest of the law — everything from protections for preexisting conditions to the Medicaid expansion required calorie labeling on menus — has to go down with it.
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https://www.vox.com/2018/12/14/18065838/obamacare-unconstitutional-texas-ruling
 
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CapelDodger said:
The US wasn't designed to be a nation-state. It wasn't designed to be a Republic. It was designed to be an open-ended legal case, by lawyers, for lawyers.
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Except his ruling was in direct contradiction to SCOTUS's ruling just a few years ago. He isn't ordering stopping the Affordable Care Act. So where does that leave us? A single judge in Texas cannot overturn the Supreme Court and Congress. This will have to work it's way back to SCOTUS which would take a year if it gets that far.
 
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acbytesla said:
SCOTUS already ruled on this. This is meaningless.
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According to the article, after that SCOTUS decision, the penalty for the individual mandate was changed to $0 by the Republican congress. That change is what makes it now in violation of The Constitution.
 
acbytesla said:
Except his ruling was in direct contradiction to SCOTUS's ruling just a few years ago. He isn't ordering stopping the Affordable Care Act. So where does that leave us? A single judge in Texas cannot overturn the Supreme Court and Congress. This will have to work it's way back to SCOTUS which would take a year if it gets that far.
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As I say, the US isn't a nation, it's an open-ended lawsuit.
 
Molinaro said:
According to the article, after that SCOTUS decision, the penalty for the individual mandate was changed to $0 by the Republican congress. That change is what makes it now in violation of The Constitution.
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Allegedly.

The US won't go out with a bang, nor with a whimper, it'll go out in a welter of litigation.
 
acbytesla said:
Except his ruling was in direct contradiction to SCOTUS's ruling just a few years ago. He isn't ordering stopping the Affordable Care Act. So where does that leave us? A single judge in Texas cannot overturn the Supreme Court and Congress. This will have to work it's way back to SCOTUS which would take a year if it gets that far.
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This ruling makes no sense. When a section of a law is found unenforceable or unconstitutional the ruling is always specific to that specific section.

Can anyone find an example where the entire law was tossed out due to a problem with one clause?

I doubt this will survive the first level of appeal.
 
If this is allowed to stand I lose my health insurance. That... is not optimal.
 
Travis said:
If this is allowed to stand I lose my health insurance. That... is not optimal.
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Don't worry, Travis. Trump has promised that he has far better and cheaper plan just waiting to replace the ACA. And he always keeps his promises. Would he lie?
 
A former republican senate staffer issuing an order that is entirely in line with republican talking points? Colour me shocked...
 
acbytesla said:
Except his ruling was in direct contradiction to SCOTUS's ruling just a few years ago. He isn't ordering stopping the Affordable Care Act. So where does that leave us? A single judge in Texas cannot overturn the Supreme Court and Congress. This will have to work it's way back to SCOTUS which would take a year if it gets that far.
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My quick reading on it is that it's not a contradiction. Since the tax penalty for not having insurance is now 0, they can't argue that it's constitutional under taxing powers.
 
bonzombiekitty said:
My quick reading on it is that it's not a contradiction. Since the tax penalty for not having insurance is now 0, they can't argue that it's constitutional under taxing powers.
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Wasn't that change made by the Republicans? Am I getting this right? They made it unconstitutional, and are now bragging about, "Hey, we TOLD you that it was unconstitutional!"?
 
Molinaro said:
According to the article, after that SCOTUS decision, the penalty for the individual mandate was changed to $0 by the Republican congress. That change is what makes it now in violation of The Constitution.
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If the republican led change makes the law unconstitutional, shouldn’t the court just declared that reducing the mandate to $0 is the unconstitutional bit because of its effect on the ACA?

I’m just thinking about how that would play out with other laws : “the federal voting act has been declared unconstitutional by a judge thanks to a republican law redefining ‘race’ earlier.”
 
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