With Shifting Public Attitudes About Health Law, Ruling Puts GOP In The Hot Seat: ‘Politically, I Don’t Think That It Helps Us At All’

The New York Times: Ruling Striking Down Obamacare Moves Health Debate To Center Stage
The decision by a federal judge in Texas to strike down all of the Affordable Care Act has thrust the volatile debate over health care onto center stage in a newly divided capital, imperiling the insurance coverage of millions of Americans while delivering a possible policy opening to Democrats. After campaigning vigorously on a pledge to protect patients with pre-existing medical conditions — a promise that helped return them to the House majority they had lost in 2010 — Democrats vowed to move swiftly to defend the law and to safeguard its protections. (Stolberg, Pear and Goodnough, 12/15)

The Associated Press: Judge's Ruling On 'Obamacare' Poses New Problems For GOP
Republicans, still stinging from their loss of the House in the midterm elections, are facing a fresh political quandary after U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor said the entire 2010 health law was invalid. Warnings about the Texas lawsuit were part of the political narrative behind Democrats' electoral gains. Health care was the top issue for about one-fourth of voters in the November election, ahead of immigration and jobs and the economy, according to VoteCast, a nationwide survey for The Associated Press. Those most concerned with health care supported Democrats overwhelmingly. (12/14)

The Washington Post: Health-Care Law Ruling Puts Republicans On The Defensive After Campaign Promises
Republicans are under greater pressure to produce an alternative to the law they have ardently opposed since its passage and a means to ensuring affordable health care coverage to some 52 million people with conditions such as diabetes, asthma and cancer. But they are still riven by the divisions that thwarted previous efforts to overhaul the law. (Sullivan, 12/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Politicians Grapple With Response To Health Law Ruling
Republicans on Sunday said they wanted to maintain the 2010 law’s guarantee of insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. But they also said they continued to oppose most or all of the law, such as its requirement that most people obtain health insurance, the so-called individual mandate. How they might accomplish both goals remained unclear. “There is widespread support for protecting people with pre-existing conditions. There’s also widespread opposition to the individual mandate,’’ said Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), speaking on CNN. She said the insurance-purchasing requirement, which is intended to ensure enough healthy people buy policies to make the plans economically viable, was particularly burdensome for low- and middle-income families. (Armour and Peterson, 12/16)

Politico: GOP Feels Heat In Wake Of Obamacare Ruling: 'It's All The Downsides'
The result is likely to be a split GOP caucus that draws flak from both the right and the left. Republicans who survived the midterm elections by vowing to protect people with pre-existing conditions will find themselves in a particularly tough spot, feeling intense pressure to make good on that pledge. “It’s all the downsides,” a House GOP aide said. “Politically, I don’t think that it helps us at all.” (Demoko and Cancryn, 12/15)

The Washington Post: Obama Hits Out At Republicans After Judge Rules Affordable Care Act Unconstitutional
Obama responded on Saturday by saying in a Facebook post that “Republicans will never stop trying to undo” the health-care law and urging people to continue to get covered under the ACA as the decision makes its way through the courts in what could be a prolonged appeals process. As of early Monday, his Facebook post has received more than 28,000 reactions, and has been liked more than 72,000 times since he also shared it on Twitter. The former president tried to quell any dread that the ruling could ultimately strike down the entirety of his signature health-care law, which is commonly referred to as Obamacare. (Bella, 12/17)

The Washington Post: Federal Judge In Texas Rules Entire Obama Health-Care Law Is Unconstitutional
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is expected to become speaker next month, issued a statement that said: “When House Democrats take the gavel, the House of Representatives will move swiftly to formally intervene in the appeals process to uphold the life-saving protections for people with pre-existing conditions and reject Republicans’ effort to destroy the Affordable Care Act.” (Goldstein, 12/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Federal Judge Rules Affordable Care Act Is Unconstitutional Without Insurance-Coverage Penalty
Friday’s decision rattled top Democratic politicians, medical groups and health-industry leaders. Some advocacy groups called on Congress to immediately pass legislation protecting coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and the American Medical Association vowed to work with other organizations in seeking an appeal. “This is a five alarm fire—Republicans just blew up our health care system,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) said in a statement. “The anti-health care zealots in the Republican Party are intentionally ripping health care away from the working poor, increasing costs on seniors, and making insurance harder to afford for people with preexisting conditions.” (Armour and Kendall, 12/15)

Politico: Schumer Pushes For Senate Vote On Obamacare Case
The Senate’s top Democrat on Sunday said he plans to push for a vote to intervene in a federal court case over Obamacare after a judge in Texas last week ruled that the landmark health care law is unconstitutional. “We’re going to fight this tooth and nail,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And the first thing we’re going to do when we get back there in the Senate is urge, put a vote on the floor, urging an intervention in the case.” (O'Brien and Ollstein, 12/16)

The Hill: Klobuchar Calls ObamaCare Ruling 'Absurd'
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Sunday called it "absurd" that a Texas judge ruled that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional and called on Republicans to work with Democrats to improve the health-care law. “The ruling was absurd. [Supreme Court] Justice [John] Roberts in a conservative court has already ruled that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional," she said on CBS's "Face the Nation." (Burke, 12/16)

The New York Times: In Weaponized Courts, Judge Who Halted Affordable Care Act Is A Conservative Favorite
The state’s Republican attorney general appears to strategically file key lawsuits in Judge O’Connor’s jurisdiction, the Northern District of Texas, so that he will hear them. And on Friday, the judge handed Republicans another victory by striking down the Affordable Care Act, the signature health law of the Obama era. Judge O’Connor, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, has been at the center of some of the most contentious and partisan cases involving federal power and states’ rights, and has sided with conservative leaders in previous challenges to the health law and against efforts to expand transgender rights. (Fernandez, 12/15)

The Associated Press: Judge In Health Care Case Had Blocked Other Obama Policies
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor, who ruled the Affordable Care Act "invalid" Friday, is no stranger to the conservative resistance to Obama administration policies. O'Connor, 53, is a former state and federal prosecutor who was nominated to the federal bench in 2007 by President George W. Bush. He has been active in the Federalist Society, which describes itself as "a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order." (12/14)