Leaving the Fifth Circuit Obamacare case now. Short news is it went very badly. The two Republican judges appear determined to strike Obamacare. There is a chance they will be too embarrassed to do so, but don’t bet on it.
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) July 9, 2019
Arguments just ended. At least two judges appear sympathetic to Texas but the judges think this is a mess Congress should fix. Judge King, the only Democratic appointee, did not ask a single question.
— Lydia Wheeler (@WheelerLydia) July 9, 2019
Judge Engelhardt, a Trump appointee, wanted to know why Congress can't pass a law that keeps all the attractive provisions of the ACA. House attorney said Trump would never sign it.
— Lydia Wheeler (@WheelerLydia) July 9, 2019
A somewhat different perspective:
A federal appeals court seemed likely on Tuesday to strike down what remains of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate, but sent more mixed signals about its willingness to throw out the rest of the health care law along with it.
the panel’s two Republican appointees wrestled with how to approach the rest of the law — whether to throw it all out, or to send the question back to a lower court.
Judge King is the Clinton appointee… The third is a Bush appointee.
Some more details on the Aca argument - Judge King didn’t say anything. So we’ll see what she thinks.
— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) July 9, 2019
Elrod to DOJ: “so the government believes the ACA is inseverable only in some states?â€Â
— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) July 9, 2019
Some questions, but hard to read how these may play out. On related note, Judge Elrod did seem very skeptical about the new DOJ argument that ACA should be repealed only in 18 states that are suing. https://t.co/6c5yaee9pI
— Noam Levey (@NoamLevey) July 9, 2019
From earlier…