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I've written more than I care to admit about the Obamacare case that's being argued at the Supreme Court this morning. For the curious: a tour!
We'll start with a @nytimes piece on the Trump administration's appalling refusal to defend the law in court. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/27/opinion/trump-obamacare-affordable-care-act.html
We'll start with a @nytimes piece on the Trump administration's appalling refusal to defend the law in court. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/27/opinion/trump-obamacare-affordable-care-act.html
We'll turn from there to the nuts and bolts of the case, and in particular to the question of whether the the plaintiffs have standing to sue. Spoiler: they don't.
Incidentally, my money is that the Supreme Court will dismiss the case on standing grounds. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/texans-challenging-obamacare-have-no-standing/578332/
Incidentally, my money is that the Supreme Court will dismiss the case on standing grounds. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/texans-challenging-obamacare-have-no-standing/578332/
With @Richard_Primus, I also argued in @TheAtlantic that Congress could move to turf the lawsuit by passing a law. It'd be a one-sentence thing, not hard to do! But no one listened. (To be fair, the Senate wouldn't have played along.) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/how-save-obamacare-texas-lawsuit/578683/
With @ASlavitt in @USAToday, I discussed how the Trump administration's reckless support for the lawsuit put health care back at the center of the 2018 election. Andy and I got to reprise that op-ed this year -- more on that in a moment. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/06/11/trump-kill-affordable-care-act-health-care-midterms-column/689085002/
OK, but all of that came before any judge ever issued an opinion in the case. In December 2018, however, we heard from Judge O'Connor -- and his opinion was a doozy, as I explained in the @washingtonpost: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/15/latest-aca-ruling-is-raw-judicial-activism-impossible-defend/
I thought -- I hoped! -- that the case would fizzle on appeal. I even agreed to listen in on the oral argument with David Kestenbaum at @ThisAmerLife. But, as you'll hear, oral argument didn't go well. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/687/small-things-considered/act-two-11
I was kinda mad, so I wrote about oral argument for @TheAtlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/texas-v-us-rise-know-nothing-judge/593959/
When the Fifth Circuit decision came down holding that the individual mandate was unconstitutional, I wrote about it in another article for @TheAtlantic. I was still mad! I called the opinion "an embarrassment." Because it is! https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/affordable-care-acts-unconstitutional-flaw/603871/
Last year, I tried to put the case into broader context in the @nytimes by charting all the ways that the Trump administration was lying about its record on health care. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/opinion/trump-healthcare.html
Over at @JAMANetwork, I discussed my sense of whether the Supreme Court was likely to take the case or not. "Can the liberal justices count on Justice Ginsburg to remain on the Supreme Court through the end of this year?" I asked. https://jamanetwork.com/channels/health-forum/fullarticle/2761685
Turns out that they did take the case -- and that RBG didn't live to see it argued. In the @nytimes, @ASlavitt and I flagged how her death shoved the litigation back to center stage for the presidential election. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/opinion/trump-supreme-court-obamacare.html
We also got to talk about the case on @ASlavitt's awesome podcast, In the Bubble. Honestly, this is maybe my favorite podcast ever -- we got to laugh about serious things together. https://www.lemonadamedia.com/podcast/the-supreme-court-the-aca-and-covid19-with-nicholas-bagley/
What's the Supreme Court going to decide? I tackled that question at @TheAtlantic, and the short answer is that the Republican political establishment hasn't done enough to move the case from off-the-wall to on-the-wall. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/aca-politics/616821/
The case looks like to fizzle. If it doesn't, however, the consequences would be catastrophic and immediate, as I discussed in another article for @TheAtlantic this morning: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/fallout-scotus-health-care-decision/617048/
That's it for now, though doubtless I'll have more to say in the coming weeks and months. What a ride. /fin
