Indiana AG pledges to keep fighting Affordable Care Act

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita vowed to keep fighting against the Affordable Care Act despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold government health care program.

The court said Texas and other plaintiffs lacked legal standing in the case of California v. Texas. It did, however, leave the door open to future challenges.

In a tweet Thursday, Rokita said “Obamacare” has driven up health care costs by hurting competition.

“Once again, SCOTUS has declined to weigh in on the merits of this insidious government takeover of our healthcare, otherwise known as Obamacare, which has drastically driven up cost by squelching competition & choice. We’ll continue to push back against this unconstitutional law," Rokita tweeted.

The court’s majority opinion, written by Justice Stephen Breyer, found the plaintiffs in the case held no legal standing because of a lack of sufficient evidence of damages presented to the court. The court did not rule on the merits or legality of the Affordable Care Act itself.

“[The plaintiffs] also argue that the minimum essential coverage requirement is not severable from the rest of the Act. Hence, they believe the Act as a whole is invalid,” Breyer wrote in the majority opinion. “We do not reach these questions of the Act’s validity, however, for Texas and the other plaintiffs in this suit lack the standing necessary to raise them.”

The U.S. Supreme Court's reversal Thursday does not settle the matter.

Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, joined Breyer’s majority opinion that the state of Texas had no standing. Thomas also filed a concurring opinion.

In his concurring opinion, Thomas largely agreed with the majority opinion, which he joined, but also criticized the court for its previous decisions on the merits of the Affordable Care Act.

“The plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the harm they suffered is traceable to unlawful conduct,” Thomas said. “Although this Court has erred twice before in cases involving the Affordable Care Act, it does not err today.”

The Center Square’s Jack Birle contributed to this report.