WASHINGTON – The Trump administration urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act.

The court filing, while expected since late March, signaled a no-holds-barred effort by the Justice Department to wipe out a law that has extended health insurance to 20 million Americans.

In court papers filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the administration argued that Congress made the law untenable in 2017 by eliminating tax penalties for people who do not purchase insurance. The provision was part of the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul passed by Republicans in 2017.

The law was enacted in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court two years later under Congress' taxing power. The justices again upheld a major portion of the law in 2015.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor declared the law unconstitutional last December, reasoning that without the tax penalty, the law's so-called individual mandate could not survive. O'Connor is a nominee of President George W. Bush.

"In the district court, the Department of Justice took the position that the remainder of the ACA was severable," the administration wrote Wednesday. "But upon further consideration and review of the district court’s opinion, it is the position of the United States that the balance of the ACA also is inseverable and must be struck down."

The same position was taken by a coalition of 18 states led by Texas, which filed the latest challenge.

"Since binding precedent confirms that the individual mandate is now unconstitutional, the remaining question is what other parts of the ACA remain," they wrote in court papers. "The ACA’s text answers that question explicitly: nothing."

A coalition of 16 states supporting the law, led by California, has three weeks to respond. The appeals court, dominated by Republicans presidents' nominees, is expected to hold oral arguments in July. If its decision comes before next January, it could leave time for the Supreme Court to hear and decide the case in the midst of the 2020 presidential election.

“The Trump Administration chose to abandon ship in defending our national health care law and the hundreds of millions of Americans who depend on it for their medical care," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said. "Our legal coalition will vigorously defend the law and the Americans President Trump has abandoned.”