Isaac Stanley-Becker | The Washington Post

In a reversal, the Justice Department now says it backs a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the signature Obama-era health law.

It divulged its position in a legal filing on Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, where an appeal is pending in a lawsuit challenging the measure’s individual mandate. A federal judge ruled in December that the entire law is unconstitutional. At the nub of that decision was the move by congressional Republicans, as part of the tax bill signed into law by President Donald Trump in December 2017, to zero out the penalty for not buying insurance.

Previously, the Trump administration had argued that the penalty for not buying insurance could be distinguished from other provisions of the law, which could still stand.

But in the new filing, signed by three Justice Department attorneys, the government said that the decision of U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor should be affirmed and that the entirety of the ACA should be invalidated.

“Because the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed, the government intends to file a brief on the appellees’ schedule,” the filing stated.