On December 31, 2016, in a separate case, O'Connor blocked the Obama administration’s regulations implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded health programs) for a "likely" violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and what he said was an improper inclusion of gender identity discrimination.[3]

On October 5, 2018, O'Connor ruled that the Indian Child Welfare Act was unconstitutional


Reed Charles O'Connor (born 1965) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.


“The question of constitutionality is straightforward: Is the individual mandate a constitutional exercise of Congress’s enumerated powers when the shared-responsibility payment is zero?” O’Connor wrote. “Because the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate under Congress’s tax power, the Court will begin there before proceeding to an interstate commerce clause analysis. The court finds that both plain text and Supreme Court precedent dictate that the individual mandate is unconstitutional under either provision.”


Federal Judge In Texas Rules Against Obamacare
The decision that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional comes in a case brought by 20 Republican state officials and backed by Trump.


Federal judge accepts GOP push, calls Obamacare unconstitutional