An Obamacare sign is seen outside the leading insurance agency, which offers plans under the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) on January 28, 2021 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
The Justice Department notified the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it no longer considers Obamacare unconstitutional, the department’s last reversal since President Joe Biden was installed in January.
The Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, filed by Texas and other Republican-led states. The Justice Department, under former President Donald Trump, supported Texas in legal reports and during oral arguments in November.
California and other blue states are defending the law, according to which 20 million Americans have gained health coverage.
“After the change in administration, the Justice Department reconsidered the government’s position in these cases,” wrote Edwin Kneedler, deputy attorney general, in a letter to Scott Harris, Supreme Court secretary.
The Biden Justice Department reversal was expected. Biden played a role in monitoring the monumental legislation in Congress in 2010, while serving as vice president of then President Barack Obama.
The case concerns Obamacare’s individual mandate, which requires that most Americans obtain health insurance or pay a fine.
The Supreme Court previously held the individual mandate to be legal under Congress’ tax powers. After Republicans in Congress set the fine at $ 0 in 2017, Texas presented its challenge, arguing that the mandate was no longer a tax.
Trump’s Justice Department agreed that the mandate was unconstitutional. The department also argued that if the Supreme Court revokes the individual mandate, it must overturn the entire Affordable Care Act.
Kneedler wrote that the Biden Department of Justice reversed its position on both issues. The department, he wrote, believes that the individual mandate clause is legal and that if the court decides it is not, the clause can be removed while the rest of the act remains in effect.
During oral arguments in the case, the judges seemed unlikely to reject the legislation altogether, although it was unclear whether the majority would consider the individual mandate illegal. Court President John Roberts and Judge Brett Kavanaugh, both conservatives, suggested that they supported the separation of the individual mandate clause from the rest of the expanding law.
Kneedler, who served in the Justice Department for more than 40 years under the presidents of the two main political parties, wrote in the letter that the department was not trying to open more documents in the case. A decision is expected during the summer.
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