The Trump Justice Department told a federal appeals court Monday night that it favors striking down Obamacare in its entirety.

The statement, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, is a departure from the administration's previous stance, which was that only the law's rules on protections for people with pre-existing conditions should be struck down.

A district court had ruled in December that Obamacare was unconstitutional on the grounds that, without the individual mandate requiring people to buy healthcare insurance or face a fine, the rest of the law should fall. Republicans had zeroed out the mandate in the 2017 tax law.

The case is now before the appeals court. In a brief letter, assistant attorney general Joseph Hunt and deputy assistant attorney general Brett Shumate wrote that the DOJ "has determined that the district court’s judgment should be affirmed."

William Barr was confirmed as attorney general in February, after the district court decision. In confirmation hearings, he had said that he would reconsider the administration's position that the law's pre-existing condition protections, and only those rules, needed to be struck down.

Obamacare has remained in place pending the appeal.

The original suit against Obamacare was brought by 20 Republican state attorneys general.