Texas judge rules ACA is unconstitutional

A federal judge in Texas ruled last week that the entire ACA is unconstitutional because of a recent change in federal tax law (Source: “Obama health-care law struck down by Texas federal judge,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dec. 15, 2018).

The opinion by U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor overturns all of the sprawling law nationwide. A spokeswoman for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, D, who leads a group of states opposing the lawsuit, said that the Democratic defenders of the law are ready to challenge the ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

The plaintiffs argue that the entire ACA is invalid. They trace their argument to the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in which Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority that the penalty the law created for Americans who do not carry health insurance is constitutional because Congress “does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance.”

As part of a tax overhaul a year ago, congressional Republicans pushed through a change in which that ACA penalty will be eliminated, starting in January. The lawsuit argues that, with the enforcement of the insurance requirement gone, there is no longer a tax, so the law no longer is constitutional.