A Federal judge granted a request to intervene in the Texas et al. v. United States et al., No. 4:18-cv-00167-O, lawsuit pending in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas from a group of State Attorneys General. The lawsuit seeks to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the group of State Attorneys General requested intervention in an effort to defend the ACA.

The lawsuit was initially filed in February 2018 by 20 State Attorneys General from mostly Republican-leaning States. The lawsuit claims that the ACA was rendered unconstitutional when President Trump signed Public Law 115-97, the Tax Reform Act of 2017,  that repealed the penalty for those failing to meet the individual insurance mandate. Last week, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and 16 additional State Attorneys General in mostly Democratic-leaning States were granted the right to intervene. In the motion to intervene, Becerra argued that the ACA has not been repealed by the passage of the tax bill and its constitutionality has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Becerra is joined by State Attorneys General from Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

A statement released by Attorney General Becerra is available here. The Court’s order is available here.