Attorney General’s Office
Oklahoma and five other states filed a legal brief supporting the challenge of the Affordable Care Act that is scheduled for argument in March at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The states’ amicus brief supports the King v. Burwell challenge of the billions of dollars in illegal IRS subsidies being handed out as part of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, despite the law never authorizing any such subsidies.
“The IRS ignored the plain language of the Affordable Care Act and essentially rewrote the law to hand out illegal subsidies in all 50 states. That’s not what the language of the ACA says and not what Congress intended when it gave states the power to decide whether to set up their own state-based exchanges. Executive agencies like the IRS cannot rewrite laws with which they may disagree. As a collection of states, we support the ACA challenge that will be decided by the Supreme Court and are hopeful a ruling in our favor will ensure the IRS and other executive agencies are held accountable to enforce the laws as written by Congress,” Attorney General Scott Pruitt said.
The state of Oklahoma was the first to challenge the illegal IRS subsidies in 2012 and in September 2014 prevailed in federal district court in its lawsuit (Pruitt v. Burwell). The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in March in King v. Burwell, a lawsuit that makes the same legal claims as Oklahoma’s ACA challenge.
The amicus was filed by Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia.
Click here for a copy of the amicus.
