Another conservative judge ruled today that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. All of it. The mandate. The exchanges. The expansion of Medicaid. The protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The whole shebang. The judge’s order doesn’t explicitly stay the law, which means that implementation will will continue as this case and others like it wind their way up to Justice Kenn–er, the Supreme Court. As Politico points out, several states that are parties to the litigation against the ACA are busy implementing the law and requesting federal grants to assist their implementation efforts. As I’ve said before, these implementation efforts are likely to be near completion in most states by the time the high court decides on the merits of the challenges against the law. I have a hard time imagining the Court nullifying the law and leaving the policy landscape in chaos, but smarter people than me have tried to second-guess the Court and made to look like fools.
