Health care law on line at court, but is it likely to fall?
WASHINGTON (AP) — To hear Democrats tell it, a Supreme Court with President Donald Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett could quickly get rid of the law that gives more than 20 million Americans health insurance coverage.
But that's not the inevitable outcome of a challenge the court will hear Nov. 10, just one week after the election.
Yes, the Trump administration is asking the high court to throw out the Obama-era healthcare law, and if she is confirmed quickly Barrett could be on the Supreme Court when the court hears the case.
But even if the justices agree that the law's mandate to buy health insurance is unconstitutional because Congress repealed the penalties for not complying, they could still leave the rest of the law alone. That would be consistent with other rulings in which the court excised a problematic provision from a law that was otherwise allowed to remain in force.
Democratic lawmakers, however, sounded alarm bells Monday, the start of four days of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee for Barrett.
The party's vice presidential nominee, Sen. Kamala Harris, who sits on the committee, said Republicans are “trying to get a justice onto the Court in time to ensure they can strip away the protections of the Affordable Care Act.”
"If they succeed, it will result in millions of people losing access to health care at the worst possible time: in the middle of a pandemic," the California senator said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California's other senator and the committee’s senior Democrat, said, “Health care coverage for millions of Americans is at stake with this nomination.” And Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island called Barrett's nomination a “judicial torpedo aimed” at Affordable Care Act protections, including for preexisting...
