The Courts

The American Medical Association, Planned Parenthood and other parties suing over the Trump HHS’ so-called “gag” rule, joined by the Biden administration, are asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the case because Biden’s HHS is taking steps to revoke the rule.

The Department of Homeland Security has formally removed the Trump-era public charge policy through a new rule filed in the Federal Register Thursday (March 11) and set to be published Monday (March 15).

The Supreme Court dismissed three cases challenging the Trump-era public charge rule Tuesday (March 9), after the Department of Justice and lawyers for immigration advocacy groups and states filed joint stipulations calling for the cases to be dismissed because the Biden administration is not defending the controversial rule.

Beneficiary advocates Nebraska Appleseed and the National Health Law Program sued Nebraska over its version of Medicaid work requirements in district court after the state urged the Supreme Court to allow its 1115 demonstration to continue even if the court were to strike down work requirement programs in New Hampshire and Arkansas.

President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to cancel arguments in the lawsuit over Medicaid work requirements and let HHS go through its process to revoke the 1115 demonstrations instead – but Arkansas says HHS’ revocation efforts could also end up in court so the case should proceed.

A Maryland immigrant rights group suing over the Trump administration’s public charge rule on Wednesday (Feb. 17) asked a federal appeals court to proceed with the case, rejecting the Biden administration’s efforts to put the case on hold while federal agencies revisit the rule.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday (Feb. 16) upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit by cancer doctors against sequestration cuts to Medicare Part B drug reimbursement rates.

The Biden Department of Justice Wednesday (Feb. 10) took a highly anticipated step to switch the government’s position in the high-profile Supreme Court case over the future of the Affordable Care Act, telling the court it now sides with House Democrats and the 20 Democratic attorneys general that defend the law -- leaving a group of GOP AGs, and two Texans, alone in calling for the law to be overturned.

The health insurance lobby leading the lawsuit over the Trump administration’s rule that expands the duration of short-term health plans is deliberating its next steps now that a federal appeals court has declined to rehear their case en banc and that the Biden administration is expected to reverse the rule as part of its regulatory review.