Judge Who Invalidated Obamacare Has Been A ‘Go-To Judge’ For Republicans, Critics Say

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December 19th, 2018

In 2015, demonstrators in Washington, D.C. urged Supreme Court justices to save the Affordable Care Act from a legal challenge. The federal health law survived, but now faces a new challenge, from a controversial ruling last week by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor; he says the ACA is invalid. An appeal of his decision is underwa

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U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor has a history of siding with Republicans on ideologically motivated lawsuits. His ruling last week, in which he sided with the GOP on a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, was not a one-off.

In fact, critics say, his history is ultimately why that case was before him in the first place.

By all accounts, O’Connor’s ruling is sweeping. It says the entire health care law became invalid when Congress zeroed out, in 2017, the tax penalty for Americans who don’t have health insurance — a penalty that had been tied to what’s known as the law’s individual mandate that nearly everyone have insurance.

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