Blumenthal Statement on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Oral Arguments in California v. Texas

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement today after the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in California v. Texas, which poses a constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA):

“Using legal contortions and standing precedent on its head, the ACA’s opponents today fallaciously tried to shoehorn facts and law to strike down health care protections. It won’t work if justices follow the Constitution. At today’s argument, Chief Justice Roberts said it plainly: while some lawmakers want the Supreme Court to legislate from the bench and strike down the health care law, that is not the Court’s job.”

“The skepticism expressed today by some of the justices around the Republican arguments on severability and standing are scant reassurance to countless families waiting anxiously to know whether they’ll have health care. Listening to abstract arguments before SCOTUS today, I kept thinking of the hundreds of millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions, including COVID, anxiously awaiting a decision in this case under a dark cloud of uncertainty. They’re in desperate danger. I hope justices have them in mind, too.”

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