The man trying to convince the Supreme Court that Obamacare subsidies should be blocked in most states shared his takeaways Wednesday from last week’s oral arguments.
The “worst moment,” said attorney Mike Carvin, was when Solicitor General Donald Verrilli appeared to jab the GOP-led Congress. When asked by Justice Antonin Scalia whether Congress could just reinstate the subsidies if the court blocks them, Verrilli responded “this Congress?”
It was said in a “very snarky voice,” Carvin told attendees at a conference hosted by America’s Health Insurance Plans.
“Which is terrific if you’re arguing on MSNBC, but if you’re arguing to nine justices who don’t think Congress gets less respect depending on partisan composition of the leadership, that was a very obstructionist kind of argument,” Carvin said.
Carvin is representing the challengers in the high-stakes King v. Burwell case, which is attempting to block the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance subsidies for low and middle-income Americans in the 37 states relying on healthcare.gov instead of running their own insurance marketplaces.
The court heard oral arguments on March 4 and is expected to hand down a ruling in June.
The Obama administration says the healthcare law allows the insurance subsidies in all the states; the challengers say it doesn’t. Carvin called the administration’s position “insulting” to states because he says it contradicts the plain text of the law and thereby requires the Supreme Court to declare whether or not the states get the subsidies.
“This … results in the view that [states] are populated by morons who couldn’t find their car in the garage without the help of the federal judiciary,” Carvin said.
