While the Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land, the U.S. Department of Justice recently filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that the ACA should be deemed unconstitutional.
A federal district court in Texas last year ruled that since the individual mandate penalty of the ACA was reduced to $0, the ACA was no longer a constitutional use of Congress’ taxing powers. Since the individual mandate was unconstitutional, the Texas court argued that the mandate could not be separated from the rest of the law and the entire ACA should be struck down. The Texas case was appealed to the Fifth Circuit.
The DOJ in its brief supports the district court’s decision that the entire ACA should be unconstitutional which is a change from it's original position on the constitutionality of the Act. Previously, the DOJ argued that some ACA provisions, such as Medicaid expansion, were severable and should not be deemed unconstitutional with the individual mandate. The DOJ now argues that all provisions of the ACA are highly interdependent and would not function as Congress intended without the individual mandate, making the entire law unconstitutional.
Oral arguments in the case are expected in early summer.
