INTERVIEW – ROB HENNEKE – was the lead lawyer on this lawsuit.  Henneke is the General Counsel & Director, Center for the American Future. Fmr. elected Texas prosecutor & Texas Asst. Attorney General

• A federal judge in Texas has ruled that most of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. The law remains in place for now, pending legal appeals expected to reach the Supreme Court. The lawsuit was brought by 20 Republican-led states. If the latest ruling is upheld after the appeal process, subsidies that people collect to buy health coverage would no longer be available. Medicaid could also be in jeopardy.
• Trump praises federal judge ruling striking down Obamacare: “Mitch and Nancy” should pass new health-care law. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, ruled Friday that ObamaCare’s individual mandate is unconstitutional and that because the mandate cannot be separated from the rest of the law, the rest of the law is also invalid. The ruling, which came just one day before the deadline to sign up for coverage for next year, is almost certainly going to be appealed.  The reasoning of the ruling states that in 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the mandate to have coverage because of Congress’s power to tax. However, Congress removed the fine for failing to comply with the mandate last year, which, the judge argues, means the mandate is no longer a tax and therefore is unconstitutional.