Judge:
IRS Obamacare Rule 'Is Arbitrary, Capricious, and Abuse of Discretion' by Craig Bannister October 2,
2014
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Ronald White concluded Tuesday that
the IRS rule altering the Obamacare law and providing billions in subsidies is
"arbitrary, capricious and abuse of discretion":
"The court
holds that the IRS rule is arbitrary,
capricious, and abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with
law, pursuant to 5 U.S.C.706(2)(A), in excess of summary jurisdiction,
authority or limitation, or short of statutory right, pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
706(2)(C), or otherwise is an invalidation of the ACA [Affordable Care Act],
and is hereby vacated. The court's order of vacatur is stayed, however, pending
resolution of any appeal from this order."
In September
2012, Oklahoma was the first of several states to challenge the legality of an
IRS rule that caused billions in subsidies to be paid out, despite Congress
having never authorized those payments.
Oklahoma
Attorney General Scott Pruitt hailed the state's victory in its lawsuit
challenging the implementation of the Affordable Care Act:
"Today's
ruling is a consequential victory for the rule of law. The administration and
its bureaucrats in the IRS handed out billions in illegal tax credits and
subsidies and vastly expanded the reach of the health care law because they
didn't like the way Congress wrote the Affordable Care Act. That's not how our
system of government works."
Pruitt said the
ruling proves that the administration can't change a law by executive fiat:
"The Obama
administration created this problem and rather than having an agency like the
IRS rewrite a law it didn't like, the administration should have done the right
thing and worked with Congress to amend the law. Oklahoma was the first to
challenge the administration's actions and today's ruling vindicates what we
recognized early on and that is the administration can't rewrite the Affordable
Care Act by executive fiat."
He said the
victory is just the beginning, because he fully expects the case to, ultimately,
be decided by the Supreme Court:
"Today's
ruling is a huge win for Oklahoma, but it's just a first step. Since Oklahoma
filed the first lawsuit in 2012, others have followed our lead and made similar
claims in other jurisdictions. It's likely this issue will ultimately be
decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. We look forward to making our case and
continuing the effort to hold federal agencies accountable to their duty to
enforce the laws passed by Congress."
Oklahoma Sen.
Jim Inhofe (R) also praised Judge White's decision, saying that the Obama
Administration is trying to fix a legally-dubious law using waivers and
exemptions:
"Today's
decision is a reminder that the President's broken promises of affordable,
accessible health care are the result of broken policy. The Obama
Administration has tried to make the law work with waivers and exemptions, but
the courts continue to confront the legality of this legislation that was
rushed through a Democrat-controlled Congress."
"While it
will undoubtedly take time for Oklahoma's case to play out in the federal court
system, I am confident in Attorney General Scott Pruitt and that our
state's argument will prevail."
Tuesday's
decision is the latest in a wave of court losses for Obamacare.
Currently, over
a hundred lawsuits have been filed against Obamacare - and Obamacare has lost
91% of the cases decided to-date, (71 losses out of 78 decisions), according to
the latest tally by The Beckett Fund
Source:http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/craig-bannister/judge-irs-obamacare-rule-arbitrary-capricious-and-abuse-discretion
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