Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ripped the Justice Department's decision to not defend the Affordable Care Act's constitutionality in a lawsuit brought by 20 Republican attorneys general.
"The ACA is the law of the land and DOJ should defend it," the New York Democrat said on Twitter:
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the February lawsuit by Texas and 19 other states argued that last year’s action by Congress to eliminate the healthcare law's tax penalty for the individual mandate rendered the law unconstitutional.
The Justice Department, in a brief filed in U.S. District Court in Texas, said the Trump administration essentially agreed with the lawsuit's premise — arguing that, in turn, consumer insurance protections under the law are also no longer valid.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions also outlined the agency's position in a three-page letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat.