Politico: “Friday night’s ruling raises a number of decisions for the White House: Will the government appeal, how quickly and will its agencies continue to enforce the law in the meantime? It’s not clear what the Trump administration will choose to do, given its legal strategy to date.”

“Career Justice Department lawyers this summer were told to drop their defense of the law — a near-unprecedented decision that led three lawyers to remove their names from the government’s brief and prompted the senior attorney, Joel McElvain, to resign.”

David Nather: “The Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature achievement, may be headed back to the Supreme Court after a conservative federal judge in Texas struck down the individual mandate as unconstitutional last evening.”

“This could be a nightmare for Republicans in suburbs and swing states.”

“The midterms proved that the ACA has gotten more popular since the GOP started trying to repeal it — especially the protections for pre-existing conditions.
If the law goes away, that goes with it. This is not the fight Republicans want to have.”

“A federal judge in Texas said on Friday that the Affordable Care Act’s individual coverage mandate is unconstitutional and that the rest of the law must also fall,” CNN reports.

“Legal experts say the law will remain in effect for now, but the invalidation of the landmark health care law throws into doubt the future of health coverage for millions of Americans on the Obamacare exchanges and in Medicaid expansion. More than 4 million people have already signed up for 2019 coverage on the exchanges, and millions more are expected to pick plans before open enrollment ends Saturday.”

Washington Post: “Since the suit was filed in January, many health-law specialists have viewed its logic as weak but nevertheless have regarded the case as the greatest looming legal threat to the 2010 law, which has been a GOP whipping post ever since and assailed repeatedly in the courts.”