The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas decided this evening that the tax reform act’s zeroing out of the ACA’s individual shared responsibility tax penalty effective January 1, 2019, renders the entire Affordable Care Act unconstitutional effect as of that date. A copy of the judge’s opinion is available here.

The decision, of course, will be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Undoubtedly, the decision will be stayed pending the outcome of the appeal.

In a perfect world this decision would cause Congress to revise the law which is unduly complicated. But the world is imperfect. So we shall see.