The U.S. Supreme Court agreed at its Feb. 28 conference to hear the latest challenge to the ACA, according to the Supreme Court of the United States Blog.
At issue in the case is the healthcare law's individual mandate to buy health insurance. Republican-led states, which filed the lawsuit, argue the mandate became unconstitutional when the penalty was set to $0 under the 2017 tax law. Additionally, the lawsuit argues that the individual mandate is inseverable from the ACA, therefore the entire law is unconstitutional.
Democratic-led states, which are defending the healthcare law, filed a petition in January calling on the Supreme Court to hear the case after a federal appeals court ruled the mandate unconstitutional. On Dec. 18, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the mandate unconstitutional but chose not to issue a decision on the severability argument, kicking that back to the lower courts to parse through and decide. Democratic-led states argued that this move prolongs uncertainty in the healthcare industry for too long.
According to SCOTUSblog reporter Amy Howe, the petition asks the Supreme Court to consider the plaintiff's legal standing as well as the constitutionality and severability of the mandate. A cross-petition from Texas over a 2018 district court decision that invalidated the entire ACA will also be reviewed. Ms. Howe reports that the court will most likely hear oral arguments in October, with the ruling expected after the election or in 2021.
Read more here.
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