That federal Judge Reed O'Connor's ruling striking down the Affordable Care Act—issued once the midterm election was over and just in time to screw up the last hours of open enrollment—was the shoddy work of a hyperpartisan, activist judge was clear from the get-go. That it took another two weeks for O'Connor to clarify his ruling to say that the law remains in effect pending an appeal.
He had to issue the new ruling because he hadn't bothered to address that two weeks ago, and recognized in his ruling that "many everyday Americans would otherwise face great uncertainty during the pendency of appeal." How benevolent of him. He also, however, is responding to calls from Republicans to allow states to appeal the ruling. The Republican attorneys general representing the states that originally used, maybe in a bit of a panic over what they had just done, asked for him to hurry up already and expedite the case for appeal. That was nearly two weeks ago.
Seventeen states led by Democratic attorneys general had also asked O’Connor to "clarify the ramifications of his ruling so they would be able to file an immediate appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals." A spokesperson for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra who has taken the lead among the Democratic state said California is prepared to appeal the decision "imminently."
One conservative, Case Western Law Professor Jonathan Adler, who was an architect of the most recent lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act and called the initial ruling "pretty bananas" is
no less impressed with this new ruling to stay. "I've been very critical of Judge O'Connor's severability analysis, but the standing analysis in these opinions may be even worse—and that's saying something," he tweeted. "I will be gobsmacked if O'Connor's opinion survives review in the Fifth Circuit."
Unless all those Republicans who brought the initial challenge have a change of heart, which isn't impossible given the drubbing Republicans got in November, this is almost certainly headed to the Supreme Court.