Trump's Justice Department finally did something so lawless that even GOP leaders are recoiling

Trump’s Justice Department finally did something so lawless that even GOP leaders are recoiling
Can Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III make a legal argument so stupid that even Mitch McConnell won't embrace it?
Ian Millhiser
Jun 13, 2018, 12:46 pm


Last Friday, one day after the Justice Department filed a brief refusing to defend the Affordable Care Act, a senior DOJ attorney with over 20 years of experience at the department resigned in an apparent act of protest. The lawyer, Joel McElvain, was one of three career lawyers who withdrew from the case rather than signing their name to the Trump administration’s arguments — a highly unusual move by career Justice Department officials.

Then, on Tuesday of this week, the top Republican on the Senate committee overseeing health care also dumped cold water on the Trump administration’s effort to undercut Obamacare through litigation. “The Justice Department argument in the Texas case is as far-fetched as any I’ve ever heard,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said in a statement.

He’s not wrong.

Indeed, on this occasion, even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appeared unamused by the Trump administration’s antics. The crux of the Trump DOJ’s arguments in this matter is that various provisions of the Affordable Care that currently protect people with preexisting conditions must be repealed by a federal court. McConnell spoke out against this, claiming with no small amount of confidence that no one in the Senate supported this agenda.

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https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-justice-department-finally-did-something-so-lawless-that-even-gop-leaders-are-recoiling-144c157608b2/