The 2010 health care law could take center stage in the
Senate debate over the confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme
Court, Brett Kavanaugh.
If the administration gets moderate Democrats to support
Kavanaugh, they will likely have to convince them that the pick will not cause
significant harm to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The Democratic Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin,
already expressed concerns about Kavanaugh’s position on the legality of
certain parts of the ACA. In a speech given at the Heritage Foundation last
year, Kavanaugh said he thought the Supreme Court was wrong to uphold the ACA’s
mandate as constitutional.
Sen. Manchin and two other Democratic Senators, Heidi
Heitkamp (N.D), and Joe Donnelly (Ind.), joined their Republican colleagues in
the Senate to confirm Gorsuch, but the upcoming election and recent fight over
the repeal of the Affordable Care Act could change calculations for the
upcoming confirmation debate.
Republicans have a slim, 51-49 majority in the Senate. While
Senate rules were changed last year to allow for the confirmation of Neil
Gorsuch on a simple 50-vote majority, Senator John McCain is in Arizona and not
currently participating in Senate votes due to his ongoing cancer treatment.
Without support from Senate Democrats, they will have to get every other
Republican to support the Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Kavanaugh’s nomination is to replace Justice Anthony
Kennedy, who announced earlier this month he will retire effective July 31st.
Justice Kennedy is often portrayed as the swing vote on the court, though it
was Chief Justice John Roberts, not Kennedy, who twice provided the decisive
swing vote on recent court decisions relating to the ACA.
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