PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced Feb. 26 that he has joined a 20-state coalition that opposes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.
The coalition says the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, meaning the entire law should be thrown out.
The individual mandate is one of the most controversial sections of the Affordable Care Act. The U.S. Supreme Court previously ruled in NFIB v. Sebelius that the mandate, which requires that people be covered by insurance or pay a fee, is a tax. The coalition says because that tax was repealed by Congress, the mandate is now unconstitutional. Therefore, the coalition argues, the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional.
Filing the coalition’s brief were Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. They filed it in a federal district court in Texas. The attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia have joined the coalition.