Some of Obamacare’s loudest critics are now defending the law in court
By Paige Winfield Cunningham, Washington Post, June 15
For once, Obamacare is bringing people together instead of dividing them. Believe it or not, five prominent scholars who have been sharply divided over past courtroom kerfuffles over the Affordable Care Act are uniting in opposition to the health-care law’s latest challenge.
Their argument, detailed in a friend-of-the-court brief filed yesterday, represents an usual alliance among liberal, conservative and libertarian legal minds — and could signify President Trump’s administration is going out on a shaky limb by refusing to defend the ACA in court.
The five include Jonathan Adler and Ilya Somin — two libertarian-minded professors at Case Western Reserve University and George Mason University who both argued the ACA’s individual mandate to buy insurance is unconstitutional when the Supreme Court considered that question back in 2012.
Kevin Walsh, a conservative who teaches law at the University of Richmond, has also signed on. While he agreed with the reasoning Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. used to uphold the mandate, he sided against ACA subsidies in the later King v. Burwell case. Walsh is known as a prominent expert on what’s known as “severability doctrine,” which outlines when a court must strike down a law because it has found one piece of it to be unconstitutional. more
The positions are contained in the Republican party’s official “standing platform” — a collection of positions on issues ranging from taxes to abortion — that was approved earlier this month at the state convention in Duluth.
As a former Navy SEAL officer turned veterans advocate, I hope our lawmakers will be inspired by their time spent on Memorial Day in somber remembrance of the fallen to redouble their support of the returned.
Donald Trump will make his first visit to Minnesota as president next week for a rally in Duluth, the battleground for the open and highly competitive 8th Congressional District seat. Trump will come to Duluth June 20, his campaign announced Monday. Trump won the Minnesota 8th in the 2016 presidential race, although DFL U.S. House Rep. Rick Nolan held onto the seat in a close election and Minnesota chose Hillary Clinton for president. Nolan earlier this year announced he would not seek re-election to the district, giving Republicans a key opportunity to flip the seat. Four Democrats are headed for an August primary at this point.St. Louis County Commissioner Pete Stauber is the endorsed Republican in the 8th District race. “We look forward to the momentum and positive energy his visit will bring to Minnesota Republicans and our opportunities this election cycle,” said Minnesota GOP Chair Jennifer Carnahan. 
Ben Kamisar from MSN reports:
The brutal separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border is an abomination for which there is no morally acceptable justification. It is a practice that simply must stop … This practice and the ensuing condemnation by other nations is particularly painful in Minnesota, a state with a rich history of extending an open hand to refugees and asylum-seekers.