Last December, U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor in the Northern District of Texas sided with GOP-led states who claimed the law was unconstitutional. O'Connor ruled that since the individual mandate had been abolished, the whole law should be done away with.
UT law professor Stephen Vladek believes the case will go to the Supreme Court, no matter what happens in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. "Chief Justice Roberts has already cast votes to uphold the ACA twice. He's not going to allow lower courts to kill it through the back door when the Supreme Court has twice upheld it through the front doors."
This is reversal of opinion in the Justice Department. Its lawyers in the past argued that some parts of the law could survive, including an expansion of Medicaid. And Vladek adds the Justice Department in general has an obligation to defend any federal statute for which a reasonable argument can be made in favor.
He notes the trump administration lost a battle in congress to get rid of the ACA is now asking the courts to do what it couldn't through the legislative branch.
"I think folks are going to have strong views about the Affordable Care Act. That's how it should be. I'm just not sure that this kind of policy making through litigation is healthy for anybody when push comes to shove."