After a federal judge in Texas declared Obamacare unconstitutional on what I saw as shaky legal grounds, I declared the decision an “assault on the rule of law.” On Wednesday, I met with Rob Henneke, a lawyer for individual plaintiffs in the suit, who said that myself and other critics “missed the mark” in our analysis, and he explained why.
The issue arises from a case brought by 20 states led by Texas and Wisconsin, along with other individuals. They charge that after Congress in 2017 zeroed out the penalty for going uninsured, they eliminated the basis for the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling upholding Obamacare, and thus the individual mandate must fall, along with the rest of the law. U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor agreed with plaintiffs, generating a flurry of criticism across the ideological spectrum.
