Supreme Court Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh Hesitant To Strike Down ObamaCare

The Supreme Court is expected to uphold the Affordable Care Act on its third challenge, according to reports Tuesday. Two of the court’s conservatives have signaled they would not strike down the landmark legislation.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who cast the key vote in 2012 upholding Obamacare, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, an appointee of President Donald Trump, suggested that they are inclined to leave the bulk of the Affordable Care Act in place.

The ACA requires most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. However, in 2017 the Republican-controlled Congress reduced the penalty to zero.

The latest challenge to the law was brought by Texas and other Republican-leaning states. They argue that because the penalty has been neutralized, it raises no revenue and is no longer constitutional.

Republican representatives have argued that the penalty reduction mandate is within the ACA and that the whole Obamacare legislation should be halted.

Roberts pushed back against the idea, telling Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins, "I think it's hard for you to argue that Congress intended the entire act to fall if the mandate were struck down when the same Congress that lowered the penalty to zero did not even try to repeal the rest of the act. I think, frankly, that they wanted the court to do that. But that's not our job."

Kavanaugh told Donald Verrilli, who was solicitor general under former President Barack Obama, that “I tend to agree with you that this is a very straightforward case” and that under the court’s precedents “we would excise the mandate and leave the rest of the act in place.”

Kavanaugh told Hawkins that it seemed like Congress in 2017 wanted to lower the individual mandate penalty without getting rid of the Affordable Care Act’s other provisions, such as its protections for those with preexisting conditions.

The court’s three liberals, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan are expected to side with the Democratic-led states that are defending Obamacare. It takes five votes to gain a majority on the nine-judge panel.