Trump Administration Outlines Case to Strike Down Obamacare

The Trump administration has revealed its legal argument against the Affordable Care Act, claiming Congress rendered the law unconstitutional by removing the individual mandate.

The individual mandate imposed a penalty on American who do not have health insurance, but was removed the the ACA by Congress in 2017. The Justice Department argues, since Congress included findings that said the individual mandate was necessary for the law’s protections for people with preexisting conditions, the entire law cannot function without it.

Assistant Attorney General Joseph Hunt wrote in the filing to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that although the administration had previously supported striking down parts of the law without invalidating it as a whole, the DoJ is now arguing against “picking and choosing which provisions to invalidate,” and the “proper course” is for the courts to strike down the ACA entirely.

“Allowing some of the reforms to go into effect without others with which they are inextricably linked would not be giving effect to the statute but rewriting it, which is the prerogative of Congress rather than the courts,” Hunt wrote, according to CNN. “The remaining provisions of the ACA should not be allowed to remain in effect — again, even if the government might support some individual positions as a policy matter.”

The appeals court will likely hold oral arguments in July.