Georgia joins Constitutional Challenge to ACA

Tuesday Attorney General Chris Carr announced that Georgia joined a 20-state coalition urging a federal district court in Texas to declare that the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate is unconstitutional and to enjoin the law in its entirety.

 In announcing the legal action General Carr said,

The Affordable Care Act’s design was constitutionally flawed at the outset. Our office has pushed back against this overt form of federal overreach from the beginning, and we will continue to work with other states to see that it is resolved in a way that protects the interests of our citizens.

The complaint, filed late Monday, explains that the ACA, as recently amended, forces an unconstitutional and irrational regime on the states and their citizens.

 In NFIB v. Sebelius, the United States Supreme Court narrowly upheld the core provision of the ACA—the individual mandate—as a “tax.” However, Congress recently repealed the tax penalty tied to that mandate, while leaving the mandate in place. Since the Supreme Court has already held that Congress has no authority to impose such a mandate without invoking its taxing power, the ACA is unconstitutional.

In addition to Georgia, the following states also joined the coalition which was led by Texas and Wisconsin: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.