The malfunctioning mics ensured that the Senate Judiciary Committee fell awkwardly silent at times during the third day of Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing. Outside the room, however, the din of politics surrounding the nomination kept getting louder. With the Senate’s ultimate confirmation of Barrett largely a foregone conclusion, both parties set about making the hearings work for them in the final weeks before the 2020 election. Those respective playbooks became clear not long after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in September, which opened up the seat that Barrett has been nominated to fill. But by Wednesday, with her confirmation hearings […]
Obamacare
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The Supreme Court, which begins its new term Monday, is confronting cases related to the election, the Affordable Care Act and religious rights, among others. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption toggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP The Supreme Court, which begins its new term Monday, is confronting cases related to the election, the Affordable Care Act and religious rights, among others. J. Scott Applewhite/AP The U.S. Supreme Court opens a new court term Monday, while across the street at the Capitol, Republicans are seeking to jam through, before the Nov. 3 election, President Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the court. […]
One week after Election Day, the Supreme Court is set to hear the latest legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act—and a newly confirmed conservative justice could easily usher in a decision that overturns the sweeping health-care law once and for all. Democrats might not have the power to stop President Donald Trump’s nominee to the court from being seated before it hears that case on Nov. 10. But in the meantime, they’re working to make sure Republicans who vote for the president’s pick are tagged with the painful politics of health care. But if Republicans are at all concerned about […]
The most powerful convention speech on Tuesday was delivered by a man who can’t speak—a person crippled with a debilitating, deadly disease who has chosen to devote the last years of his life to political activism. Ady Barkan is, for many, a now-familiar face. Stricken with ALS, he turned his life mission into advocating for universal health care. Wheelchair bound, he came up to the halls of Congress to lobby against legislation that would undo the Affordable Care Act. Increasingly unable to use his vocal chords, he famously confronted then Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on an airplane to demand that he […]
Like many Republicans in office today, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) came to power in the Barack Obama era by running against the president’s signature health-care law. Today, those Republicans are confronting a difficult political environment in which their dogged efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act may have, in fact, made it more popular. And many are trying to whitewash their prior opposition. Tillis is taking it a bit farther. The North Carolina Republican, who is facing a competitive re-election this fall, is now bragging that a health-care bill he wrote “literally” cribs language from Obamacare. In a July 27 appearance […]
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare amid pandemic, recession by Sahil Kapur/NBC news WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to wipe out Obamacare, arguing that the individual mandate is unconstitutional and that the rest of the law must be struck down with it. The late-night brief, filed Thursday in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, carries major implications for the presidential election. If the justices agree, it would cost an estimated 20 million Americans their insurance coverage and nullify protections for pre-existing conditions. The Trump administration’s brief comes as the U.S. has recorded more than 120,000 deaths from COVID-19, with […]
The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. Thursday the Trump administration reaffirmed its position that the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Susan Walsh/AP hide caption toggle caption Susan Walsh/AP The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. Thursday the Trump administration reaffirmed its position that the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Susan Walsh/AP In a filing with the Supreme Court, the Trump administration has reaffirmed its position that the Affordable Care Act in its entirety is illegal because Congress eliminated the individual tax penalty for failing to purchase medical insurance. Solicitor General Noel Francisco, the government’s chief advocate […]
With almost 125,000 Americans dead and tens of million more still out of work, the U.S. government Thursday night filed its brief in opposition to the Affordable Care Act with the Supreme Court. If they succeed, 20 million people would lose their medical coverage amid a raging pandemic and a deep recession. For good measure, the Foundation for Moral Law, the non-profit helmed by Kayla Moore, wife of the Trump-approved ex-Alabama judge with an eye for under-age girls, is siding with the government. The reality is that Americans place greater faith in Joe Biden than the president when it comes to […]
Defying public-health guidelines and putting senators at risk to elevate a favorite judge to the second highest court in the land, Mitch McConnell behaves like a man who knows his time is running out. He’s already filled some 200 federal judgeships with young, Federalist Society approved conservatives poised to overturn the Affordable Care Act. With the election looking iffy for the president, McConnell has dropped all pretense of an unbiased judiciary in his rush to beat the clock. At a sparsely attended Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning, 37-year-old Kentucky District Judge Justin Walker, a McConnell favorite who’s trashed Obamacare in […]