Congressional amicus brief filed in 5th Circuit ACA case

Arizona Congressman Trent Franks, Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, was joined by 42 of his colleagues last week, in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in the case of Steven Hotze, M.D. v. Kathleen Sebelius. The 30-page congressional amicus brief traces the historical foundation of the Origination Clause and argues that the chamber closest to the people and elected every two years has the sole power to originate revenue raising bills.

The Texas federal court case raises the issue of whether the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, violates the Origination Clause of the Constitution because it originated in the Senate instead of the House as required for all bills raising revenue.

According to Franks, Obamacare contains 17 tax provisions raising approximately $500 billion in taxes, including the individual mandate to purchase health insurance, which the Supreme Court ruled could only be constitutional, if at all, under Congress’s power to tax.

“If the Senate can introduce the largest tax increase in American history by simply peeling off the House number from a six-page unrelated bill, which does not even raise taxes, and pasting it on the ‘Senate Health Care Bill,’ and then claim with a straight face that the resulting bill originated in the House, then the American ‘rule of law’ has become no rule at all,” said Franks in a statement released Friday.

Franks is the sponsor of House Resolution 153 with 56 co-sponsors, which according to Franks, expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that Obamacare violated the Origination Clause. Last week, Franks also held a contentious hearing on the topic before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.

Last fall, Congressman Franks and his colleagues filed a similar brief in the related case of Sissel v. HHS in the D.C. Circuit which was heard last week and which Mr. Franks attended.