Conservatives are begging the federal courts to uphold Obamacare .

Yes, that sounds weird. And its very different from what happened during a pair of previous legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act . In those cases, conservatives across the country were all in on the effort to strike down the 2010 health care law filing briefs, writing op-eds and giving interviews to anybody in the media who would listen.

Now theres a new lawsuit from 20 Republican state officials who say that the entire program must go because of one, supposedly unconstitutional, provision. It prevailed in federal district court late last year, setting up a hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and, depending on the outcome there, in the U.S. Supreme Court maybe just before the 2020 election, maybe just after.

President Donald Trump is rooting for the case to succeed, even though an estimated 20 million people would lose insurance and, as usual , he doesnt have a replacement plan . At his behest, the Justice Department last week formally informed the 5th Circuit that it, too, wants the whole law to come off the books.

But outside the White House and beyond his most ardent supporters on Capitol Hill, conservatives think that would be nuts either because they genuinely think the merits of the case are so weak or because they fear the political effects for Republicans could be devastating, or both.

Whatever their rationale, they are making their feelings known and, in the process, supplying conservative judges with arguments that can stop the lawsuit in its tracks.