The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has shifted its position on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), stating that the entire law should be struck down, according to an ABC News report.
In a March 25 letter to the appeals court, three DOJ attorneys wrote that the Department of Justice believes the ruling of a federal district court in Texas striking down the law should be affirmed.
The DOJ's shift comes after the department last fall argued in the Texas court that most of the law should remain intact, even if its individual mandate were eliminated, ABC News said. However, in December, District Judge Reed O'Connor declared the entire law invalid.
An appeal of O'Connor's decision is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. But the DOJ has now decided it agrees with the judge that the ACA should be thrown out, according to the report.
