Judicial Watch Statement on Supreme Court’s Ruling in King v. Burwell

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling today in King v. Burwell, in which it held that the federal government was authorized to provide subsidies for individuals whose states did not establish healthcare exchanges under the terms of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA):

Today’s Burwell decision is an affront to the rule of law and constitutional self-government.  No federal judge has the power to rewrite the law, which is what the majority did today in Burwell.  Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Kennedy, Justice Breyer, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Ginsburg and Justice Kagan took part in an unconstitutional power grab every bit as unlawful as President Obama’s rewrite of Obamacare.  None of these justices have the constitutional power to rewrite major components of Obamacare in order to “save it.”  Ironically, the majority cites the corruption of the passage of Obamacare as an excuse for the judiciary’s own corrupt, nonsensical fix of the same law.  Congress still can vindicate its power and uphold the rule of law.  This terrible decision has no binding effect on choices by Congress to defund President Obama’s despotic rewrite of the law and prevent the IRS from unlawfully providing insurance subsidies.  And, of course, the impeachment power still remains for executive branch officials who won’t obey the law.  The Court makes a policy pronouncement, all evidence to the contrary, that “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them.”  The justices in the majority ought to have the honesty to run for Congress if they want to write rather interpret law.  Our republican form of government is weakened when the president and six Supreme Court justices disregard federal statutes in favor of their own policy choices.