From June: These fucking cheating scumbags: https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-judge-rules-affordable-care-act-is-unconstitutional-11544838743 Federal Judge Rules Affordable Care Act Is Unconstitutional Without Insurance-Coverage Penalty The ruling injects uncertainty into the health-care coverage of millions WASHINGTON—The Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional without its insurance-coverage penalty, a Texas federal judge ruled Friday, thrusting the embattled health law’s future and coverage for millions of Americans into question. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the main provisions of the Affordable Care Act should be struck down after Republicans repealed its insurance-coverage penalty. The Texas federal judge’s decision could endanger coverage of tens of millions of Americans. Judge O’Connor sided with the claims of 20 Republican states, which brought a lawsuit asserting the law is unconstitutional without a penalty for not having coverage. Republicans repealed the requirement last year, although it doesn’t go into effect until 2019. The Supreme Court has upheld the ACA as constitutional based on Congress’ taxing power.
It's going to SCOTUS, they don't have the votes. Logic would dictate that it needs to be struck down since to argue it's "unconstitutional", you'd have to see what made it so, and make that itself "unconstitutional"; restoring the ACA in full. "Hey, let's make gunpowder unlawful, ruling firearms unconstitutional."
This ruling is absolutely fantastic and well executed by the Trump administration. Notice though that when an honest judge rules, he doesn't say the law has to immediately be stopped. Were it some idiot from the 9th Circus, the law would have a postehaste injunction. One thing to note---this is different than some activist fool in Hawaii thinking he is more powerful than the president. That garbage needs to be stopped.
This almost too good for the democrats politically. Their number one issue going into the midterms was healthcare. Now they get to beat the living crap out of republicans until SCOTUS takes this up and if upheld they take it straight into 2020 on fast track for a universal plan.
It is going to be a very interesting case to follow. I haven't had time to study the Judges argument yet, but the brief summary I heard on the radio seems to make sense. I think I would have ruled the same way were I the judge. This will either turn out to be a brilliant strategy by the Republicans or come back to haunt them once their tactics are fully exposed. As I understand it, eliminating the penalty (tax) for not having insurance made the ACA unconstitutional. Only time will tell whether they get away with it. Politically I don't think it was a good move unless the perpetrator's strategy can somehow go undetected. It seems the press ("The enemy of the people") will not let them go unexposed. These misanthropes may have inadvertently handed the democrats valuable additional fodder for the 2020 election campaign. Will "the final solution" be medicare for all? Will this turn out to be a step in that direction? The Nazis used "the Final Solution" as their way of referring to annihilation of the Jewish population. Now it would seem, in our American politics, the Republicans saw getting the ACA declared unconstitutional as the "final solution", whereas the real "final solution," and the "solution" they hate most, medicare for all, may have been given a giant shot in the arm by their actions. How ironic that could be !!!