Supreme Court Upholds the Affordable Care Act
The
U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
for the third time. The Court threw out the case of California et al. v. Texas
et al. on the basis that the plaintiffs did not have the standing to file
the lawsuit. The vote was 7 to 2, with the majority opinion written by Justice
Stephen Breyer. Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Justices Clarence Thomas,
Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett rounded out those voting in the majority.
“To have standing, a plaintiff must ‘allege personal injury fairly traceable
to the defendant’s allegedly unlawful conduct and likely to be redressed by
the requested relief,’” but “No plaintiff has shown such an injury,” the
Court said. Specifically, Texas and other objecting Republican-dominated states
were not required to pay anything under the mandate provision and thus, had no
standing to bring the challenge to court.
Justices
Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented. They would have struck down the most
popular parts of the law, including the provision barring discrimination based on preexisting medical conditions.
The Court only ruled on the standing issue. The underlying issues that brought
the case to the Supreme Court, namely Texas’ claim that without the penalty,
the ACA’s minimum essential coverage provision is unconstitutional as well as
a finding that the penalty provision is not severable from the ACA, were not addressed.
Unless Congress legislatively addresses the issues raised by Texas, it is likely
that the ACA will be challenged in court again.
