Murphy Blasts Republican Briefs Asking Supreme Court to Overturn Aca in Partisan Lawsuit During Covid-19 Pandemic

Press Release

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, on Thursday released the following statement after the White House and Republican attorneys general filed their legal briefs asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the California v. Texas lawsuit. In 2018, 18 Republican state attorneys general, led by Texas, sued the federal government arguing that the ACA is unconstitutional. The Trump administration took the unprecedented step to side with the plaintiffs in this partisan lawsuit.

"President Trump and his Republican enablers have badly bungled the U.S. COVID-19 response, resulting in over 120,000 Americans dead. What's worse is that even in the midst of this global pandemic, the White House is moving forward with their plan to sabotage the American health care system and take health insurance away from millions of Americans. The American people deserve better. My constituents in Connecticut deserve better. And I'm sure that the American people will not forget the actions President Trump is undertaking to ruin people's lives" said Murphy.

Murphy blasted the Supreme Court's announcement earlier this year to not expedite review of the Obamacare lawsuit. Last December during open enrollment season, Murphy took to the U.S. Senate floor to discuss the importance of the ACA. In July, as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Texas v. United States (later renamed California v. Texas), Murphy authored an op-ed in the Hartford Courant highlighting what's at stake for 522,000 residents in Connecticut and over 130 million Americans with pre-existing health conditions if the ACA were overturned.

Source