Obamacare mandate ruled unconstitutional

  I know this looks like it should be a headline from several years ago but it is not, this is actually  a story that slipped under the radar last week: a Federal Court ruled that because the tax penalty for not having healthcare insurance was removed in Donald Trump’s tax cuts back in 2017 the mandate was no longer Constitutional because its Constitutionality hinged on the power of the Congress to tax. With no tax there can be no mandate. Here is more:

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Wednesday a trial judge’s decision invalidating the mandate, saying it could no longer be justified as a tax because of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The mandate and the rest of the ACA will remain in effect, however, because the trial judge put his own decision on hold while litigation continues.

 The decision is being appealed and the Court has ordered a stay until the case is fully adjudicated, but even if the mandate is upheld by the Supreme Court it is hard to see to what end because without the mechanism to enforce the mandate in place it really cannot be considered a mandate any more, can it? This seems a little anti-climatic at this point.

  And of course there are no guarantees when it comes to how the Supreme Court will rule because you might remember that John Roberts changed his vote at the last minute and had to do some verbal acrobatics in order to uphold the mandate the last time around so there is no telling what he will do this time around.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium