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AG Hawley joins coalition to fight unconstitutional ‘Obamacare’

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley today joined a 20-state coalition urging a federal district court in Texas to hold the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate unconstitutional and to enjoin the entire law.

The complaint, filed late Monday, explains that the ACA, as recently amended, forces an unconstitutional regime onto the states and their citizens. In NFIB v. Sebelius, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly upheld the core provision of the ACA—the individual mandate—as a “tax.” However, Congress has recently repealed this tax, while leaving the mandate in place. Since the Supreme Court has already held that Congress has no authority to impose the mandate on Americans unless it is a tax, the mandate is now unconstitutional and the ACA must fall.

“The Affordable Care Act was never constitutional,” Hawley said. “My Office will continue to fight to take health care choices out of the hands of DC bureaucrats and put them in the hands of families and physicians.”

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the coalition’s brief in a federal district court in Texas. In addition to Missouri, the other states participating are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.