Appellate court raises new threat to Obamacare

[DonViejo]

By PAUL DEMKO 06/26/2019 04:57 PM EDT Updated 06/26/2019 05:26 PM EDT

A federal appeals court this afternoon questioned whether Democratic states and the House of Representatives have the right to appeal a court ruling that declared all of Obamacare unconstitutional.

In a surprise move that legal experts said added an unexpected threat to Obamacare, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked who — if anyone — has standing to appeal the December lower court ruling after the Trump administration recently sided with red states who brought the lawsuit.

The request from one of the most conservative circuit courts in the country suggests that the judges who will hear the could toss out the appeal on procedural grounds. In that scenario, the lower court ruling would stand, leaving in doubt the future of the expansive 2010 health care law.

The implications of such a decision for the future of the Affordable Care Act are difficult to parse without more information, legal experts said. But most suggested that it wouldn't bode well for supporters of Obamacare.

“The odds that the Fifth Circuit does something nasty to the health-reform law have gone up,” Nicholas Bagley, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School who has followed the case closely, wrote on Twitter.

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/26/appellate-court-raises-new-threat-to-obamacare-3496516

[lark]

1. The odds that the Fifth Circuit destroy healthcare out of partisan spite are huge.

Repug assholes reign in that court.