AG Pruitt Attends Supreme Court Arguments in King v. Burwell

AG attends Supreme Court arguments in King v. Burwell

OKLAHOMA CITY – Attorney General Scott Pruitt said the arguments heard Wednesday at the U.S. Supreme Court over the unlawful implementation of the Affordable Care Act present the court with a chance to rein in executive overreach.

General Pruitt attended the Supreme Court arguments in King v. Burwell. Oklahoma has played a major role in this case, being the first state to challenge the illegality of what the administration did by authorizing tax credits through federally run health insurance exchanges.

“This legal challenge presents a simple question for the Supreme Court to decide: did the IRS go further than what the ACA allows. The law clearly states that tax subsidies can’t be handed out and large-employer penalties can’t be assessed in states like Oklahoma that didn’t create their own exchanges. The IRS ignored those clear instructions in the ACA and rewrote the law to suit the political needs of the administration,” General Pruitt said.

“It’s one thing when the president says that gridlock in Congress ‘forces’ him to use his pen and his phone to circumvent Congress, but it’s quite another when Congress passes precisely the law the president wanted, yet he still can’t resist the urge to rewrite the law whenever he feels it necessary, and that is precisely what he did here.”

“I am encouraged to see the federal courts increasingly stepping in to rein in this sort of executive overreach. A federal judge recently halted the president’s executive actions on immigration in 26 states – including Oklahoma – that have challenged his unconstitutional executive actions. I am hopeful the Supreme Court will agree the IRS rule is unlawful and will put a stop to this extraordinary example of executive overreach. The IRS rule and the president’s immigration executive actions undermine the rule of law. Words, especially those in federal laws like the Affordable Care Act, have meaning, and I am encouraged the Court will heed the words of the ACA and side with those of us who brought this legal challenge.”