Justice Department offers first arguments to strike down ObamaCare

The Justice Department on Wednesday made its first full argument in federal court that the Affordable Care Act in its entirety “should not be allowed to remain in effect,” according to CNN.

In the filing in the 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Assistant Attorney General Joseph Hunt reportedly said the Trump administration has abandoned its earlier position that parts of the law could remain in effect even if its individual mandate were thrown out.

{mosads}“[P]icking and choosing which provisions to invalidate,” Hunt wrote, would undermine Congressional authority and the law should instead be struck down entirely, according to CNN.  

“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,” he added, according to the news outlet.

The government wants the court to strike down the Affordable Care Act’s “guaranteed issue” and “community rating” provisions, which prevent coverage discrimination based on preexisting conditions, as well as provisions unrelated to the individual mandate, such as Medicaid eligibility expansion. The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that states could choose to opt out of the Medicaid expansion provision.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted the filing in a statement Wednesday.

“There is no viable legal argument and no moral defense for the devastation the Trump Administration is asking the court to inflict on Americans’ health care,” she wrote. “The Trump Administration owes the American people answers for why it is seeking to rip away protections for pre-existing conditions and cause such vast suffering for families across America.”

The 5^th Circuit is set to hear the case in July, meaning the case could end up before the Supreme Court in its next term, putting the issue front and center in an election year. President Trump has pledged a vote on a replacement health care plan “right after” the presidential election.