U.S. Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument on Obamacare
Press Release
AUSTIN – In the United States Supreme Court, Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins argued that Obamacare unconstitutionally exceeds Congress’s enumerated powers and should be declared invalid. While the Supreme Court previously upheld the law in 2012 as a valid exercise of Congress’s taxing power, Congress changed the law in 2017 to eliminate its tax provision—so Obamacare is no longer justifiable as a tax. Obamacare now exceeds Congress’s powers because it simply commands Americans to purchase health insurance.
“It is plainly unlawful for the federal government to order private citizens to purchase subpar insurance that they don’t want. Under Obamacare, Texans faced higher costs, fewer choices, and a power imbalance between the people and their government,” said Attorney General Paxton. “The Framers’ constitutional design leaves it to the states to identify and implement the best healthcare system for their citizens, particularly those with preexisting conditions. Today, Texas seeks to preserve that federalism. It’s time to end Obamacare’s one-size-fits-all approach and let the states do what works for them.”
Obamacare consistently and unlawfully imposes rising costs on citizens and transfers an enormous amount of regulatory power to the federal government. When the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare in 2012, a majority of the justices agreed that Obamacare’s individual mandate was only constitutional due to its accompanying tax penalty. Furthermore, Congress and the Obama administration made it clear that the individual mandate was an essential component of the law, without which the remainder of the law would not have been enacted.