Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh refused to say whether he’d uphold the Affordable Care Act’s protections for pre-existing conditions, which are currently at risk due to a GOP lawsuit at the lower court level.

Kavanaugh, in dodging Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)’s question, pointed to what Supreme Court justices had said in their confirmation hearings about declining to say how they would rule in specific cases.

“It’s a combination of my respect for nominee precedent and my respect for judicial independence,” Kavanaugh said. “So I can’t give assurances on a specific hypothetical.”