Republicans love to complain about “activist judges,” that is, until they find one willing to do their political bidding.
On Friday, members of the GOP hailed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor striking down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as unconstitutional. They didn’t seem to care that O’Connor had to use some highly questionable reasoning to arrive at that conclusion, which the Supreme Court rejected in 2012.
For his part, President Trump was delighted that a federal judge was able to do what he and the GOP-controlled Congress failed to do in 2017: kill Obamacare. “As I predicted all along, Obamacare has been struck down as an UNCONSTITUTIONAL disaster! Now Congress must pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions,” he tweeted.
Others in the GOP also celebrated the decision over the weekend. In a tweet, Missouri Sen.-elect Josh Hawley, who signed onto the lawsuit as attorney general and spent his campaign telling voters he would protect preexisting conditions, called upon both parties to work together to protect those with preexisting conditions. Hawley did so despite knowing his lawsuit seeks to fully overturn those protections.