The Courts

The Supreme Court likely will hear arguments in December over whether the government is obligated to pay out about $12 billion owed to issuers participating in the ACA’s risk corridors program, presuming the court agrees to a recently proposed briefing schedule.

The Department of Justice on Monday (July 15) said it will “continue to vigorously defend religious freedom,” after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that blocked the Trump administration from implementing new rules broadening employers’ ability to sidestep the ACA’s contraceptive coverage mandate.

The Democratic-led House Oversight & Government Reform Committee planned to use its first hearing on the Affordable Care Act to shine a light on the law's benefits and investigate the Trump administration's involvement in the lawsuit to overturn it, but administration officials declined to testify and Republicans jumped on the opportunity to criticize Medicare for All.

Democratic lawmakers and stakeholders are drawing on Republicans’ high-profile lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act as an opportunity to unify Democrats around a central health care message going into the 2020 election, even as the progressive wing of the party simultaneously pushes Medicare for All.

All parties in the high-profile case over the future of the Affordable Care Act told the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals prior to Tuesday’s oral arguments that there’s still a controversy between the GOP plaintiffs and the Trump administration, even though the Department of Justice recently sided with the plaintiffs.

The Trump administration tells a federal appeals court that the high-profile suit over the future of the Affordable Care Act should be viewed a live case even though the Department of Justice now sides with the 18 GOP-led states and two Texas residents who sued HHS to overturn the health law.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals On Tuesday (July 2) denied a request from GOP attorneys general to delay the July 9 oral arguments in Texas v. Azar due to the court’s new questions over parties’ standing in the high-profile case over the Affordable Care Act’s future, but did grant the AGs an additional two days to submit a response, which is now due July 5.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday (July 1) announced the three judges who will hear oral arguments next Tuesday (July 9) in the high-profile case over the fate of the Affordable Care Act: Caroline Dineen King, appointed to the court by President Jimmy Carter, Jennifer Walker Elrod, appointed by President George W. Bush; and Kurt Englehardt, appointed by Donald Trump.

The Trump administration urged the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals not to overturn or hear arguments in the case about its controversial rule that prevents facilities that refer patients for abortions from receiving Title X funds.