DOJ Urges Supreme Court not to Strike all of ObamaCare

By 

Matthew Clark

|
January 27, 2012

2 min read

ObamaCare

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Today, the Obama Justice Department filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that if it holds that ObamaCare’s individual mandate is unconstitutional, it should not strike the entire law.

As Politico reports:

Only two provisions — those requiring insurers to accept everyone regardless of health status and to apply “community rates” — must go if the mandate is knocked down, Justice Department lawyers wrote in a brief to the court.

“Other provisions can operate independently and would still advance Congress’s core goals of expanding coverage, improving public health and controlling costs even if the minimum coverage provision were held unconstitutional,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.

However, as the ACLJ argued in our amicus brief to the high Court, on behalf of over 100 Members of Congress and 100,000 Americans:

The unconstitutional individual mandate is the essential component of [ObamaCare’s] reforms to the health insurance and health care markets, as the Federal Government has conceded. Congress would not have passed [ObamaCare] absent the individual mandate. Without the individual mandate, [ObamaCare’s] remaining provisions cannot function properly. Thus, the unconstitutional individual mandate is not severable from [ObamaCare], and the entire Act must be invalidated.

The ACLJ is preparing our latest amicus brief filing in this case arguing that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. We are Representing 119 Members of Congress and over 180,000 Americans on this brief. You can still add your name here.