LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced Wednesday that Arkansas joined Texas and 16 other states in a brief urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the decision that the Affordable Care Act and its individual mandate are unconstitutional, according to a news release.
“Today, Arkansas is one step closer to upending this unconstitutional law,” said Attorney General Rutledge.
“The unconstitutional individual mandate was the backbone of this law and without it in place, Obamacare cannot be upheld. Congress must take action to increase health care options, lower costs and protect those with pre-existing conditions.”
In the brief, the 18-state coalition argues that the district court was right to challenge the individual mandate because it increases the amount they spend on state health-insurance programs, says the release.
According to the release, a majority of the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare against a constitutional challenge in 2012 and held that the individual mandate was a valid exercise of Congress’s tax power. But a different majority also held that Congress did not have the power to create the individual mandate under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. As Chief Justice John Roberts explained, and the four-justice dissent agreed, the Commerce Clause gives Congress power to regulate commerce – but not to compel it, which is what the individual mandate does.
Read the full press release and the brief below.
Arkansas Attorney General U… by on Scribd
Texas v Us Aca 5th Circuit … by on Scribd
