Texas v. United States

945 F.3d 355

State of TEXAS; State of Alabama; State of Arizona; State of Florida; State of Georgia; State of Indiana; State of Kansas; State of Louisiana; State of Mississippi, by and through Governor Phil Bryant; State of Missouri; State of Nebraska; State of North Dakota; State of South Carolina; State of South Dakota; State of Tennessee; State of Utah; State of West Virginia; State of Arkansas; Neill Hurley; John Nantz, Plaintiffs – Appellees,

v.UNITED STATES of America; United States Department of Health; Human Services; Alex Azar, II, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; United States Department of Internal Revenue; Charles P. Rettig, in his Official Capacity as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Defendants – Appellants,State of California; State of Connecticut; District of Columbia; State of Delaware; State of Hawaii; State of Illinois; State of Kentucky, ex rel. Andy Beshear, Governor; State of Massachusetts; State of New Jersey; State of New York; State of North Carolina; State of Oregon; State of Rhode Island; State of Vermont; State of Virginia; State of Washington; State of Minnesota, Intervenor-Defendants – Appellants.

No. 19-10011

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

December 18, 2019

REVISED December 20, 2019

REVISED January 9, 2020

Kyle Douglas Hawkins, Lanora Christine Pettit, Office of the Attorney General, Office of the Solicitor General, Austin, TX, Matthew Hamilton Frederick, Deputy Solicitor General, Office of the Solicitor General for the State of Texas, Austin, TX, David J. Hacker, Office of the Attorney General of Texas Environmental Protection Division, Austin, TX, Darren Lee McCarty, Esq., Office of the Attorney General for the State of Texas, Austin, TX, for Plaintiffs – Appellees State of Texas, State of Alabama, State of Arizona, State of Florida, State of Georgia, State of Indiana, State of Kansas, State of Louisiana, State of Mississippi, by and through Governor Phil Bryant, State of Nebraska, State of North Dakota, State of South Carolina, State of South Dakota, State of Tennessee, State of Utah, State of West Virginia, State of Arkansas.

Robert E. Henneke, Munera Al-Fuhaid, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Austin, TX, for Plaintiffs – Appellees Neill Hurley, John Nantz

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Kathleen Boergers, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Oakland, CA, Nimrod Elias, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, San Francisco, CA, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant State of California.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, Joseph Rubin, Office of the Attorney General for the State of Connecticut, Hartford, CT, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant State of Connecticut.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, Caroline Van Zile, Esq., Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, Washington, DC, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant District of Columbia.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, Jessica Willey, Delaware Department of Justice, Wilmington, DE, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant State of Delaware.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Robert Tadao Nakatsuji, Office of the Attorney General for the State of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant State of Hawaii.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Bridget DiBattista, Illinois Attorney General's Office Civil Appeals Division, Chicago, IL, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant State of Illinois.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, for Intervenor Defendants – Appellants State of Kentucky, State of New York, State of North Carolina, State of Oregon.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, Stephen B. Vogel, Office of Massachusetts Attorney General, Boston, MA, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant State of Massachusetts.

Matthew Joseph Berns, Marie Soueid, Office of the Attorney General for the State of New Jersey, Trenton, NJ, Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, for Intervenor Defendant - Appellant State of New Jersey.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Maria Rose Lenz, RI Department of Attorney General Civil, Providence, RI, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant State of Rhode Island.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Benjamin Battles, Office of the Attorney General for the State of Vermont, Montpelier, VT, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant State of Vermont.

Matthew Robert McGuire, Deputy Solicitor, Hunton Andrews Kurth, L.L.P., Richmond, VA, Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Michelle Shane Kallen, Deputy Solicitor General, Office of the Attorney General Solicitor General Division, Richmond, VA, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant State of Virginia.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Neli N. Palma, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the State of California, Sacramento, CA, Jeffrey T. Sprung, State of Washington, Attorney General's Office Complex Litigation Division, Seattle, WA, for Intervenor Defendant – Appellant State of Washington.

Samuel Siegel, Sacramento, CA, Scott H. Ikeda, Minnesota Attorney General's Office, Saint Paul, MN, for Saint Paul, MN, State of Minnesota.

August E. Flentje, U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division, Appellate Section, Washington, DC, Martin Vincent Totaro, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Defendants – Appellants United States of America, United States Department of Health and Human Services, Alex M. Azar, II, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, United States Internal Revenue Service, Charles P. Rettig, in his Official Capacity as Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

Douglas Neal Letter, Esq., Brooks M. Hanner, Kristin Ann Shapiro, Assistant General Counsels, Todd Barry Tatelman, Deputy General Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of General Counsel, Washington, DC, Ginger Anders, Elaine Goldenberg, Jeremy Kreisberg, Jonathan Meltzer, Rachel Miller-Ziegler, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., Munger, Tolles & Olson, L.L.P., Washington, DC, Brian Rene Frazelle, Brian Rene Frazelle, Ashwin Pradyumna Phatak, Elizabeth Bonnie Wydra, Chief Counsel, Constitutional Accountability Center, Washington, DC, for Intervenor United States House of Representatives.

Eric Olson, Office of the Attorney General, Denver, CO, for Intervenor State of Colorado.

Nathanael Blake, Office of the Iowa Attorney General, Department of Justice, Des Moines, IA, Eric Olson, Office of the Attorney General, Denver, CO, for Intervenor State of Iowa.

Eric Olson, Office of the Attorney General, Denver, CO, Fadwa A. Hammoud, Michigan Department of Attorney General, Solicitor General Division, Lansing, MI, for Intervenor State of Michigan.

Eric Olson, Office of the Attorney General, Denver, CO, Heidi Parry Stern, Office of the Attorney General for the State of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, for Intervenor State of Nevada.

Hyland Hunt, Deutsch Hunt, P.L.L.C., Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae Small Business Majority Foundation.

John Allen Eidsmoe, Senior Counsel, Foundation for Moral Law, Montgomery, AL, for Amicus Curiae, Foundation for Moral Law.

Benjamin Michael Flowers, Office of the Attorney General for the State of Ohio, Columbus, OH, for Amici Curiae State of Ohio, State of Montana.

Jack R. Bierig, Esq., Schiff Hardin, L.L.P., Chicago, IL, Catherine M. Masters, Faegre Baker Daniels, Chicago, IL, for Amici Curiae American Medical Association, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Association of Public Health Physicians, American College of Correctional Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, American College of Radiation Oncology, American Geriatrics Society, American Medical Women's Association, American Osteopathic Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Society of Hematology, American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, GLMA Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality, Renal Physicians Association.

Joseph R. Palmore, Morrison & Foerster, L.L.P., Washington, DC, Joshua L. Hedrick, Hedrick Kring, P.L.L.C., Dallas, TX, for Amici Curiae Jonathan H. Adler, Nicholas Bagley, Abbe R. Gluck, Ilya Somin.

Sean Michael Marotta, Hogan Lovells US, L.L.P., Washington, DC, for Amici Curiae American Hospital Association, Federation of American Hospitals, Catholic Health Association of the United States, America's Essential Hospitals, Association of American Medical Colleges.

Pratik A. Shah, Z.W. Julius Chen, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, L.L.P....