The court on Monday announced it would consider an appeal by a group of Democratic-led states that are defending the 2010 health-care overhaul legislation, a signature achievement for President Obama. The ACA is under legal attack from a group of Republican states, which found a new tactic for challenging the law in 2018—based on whether Americans must buy health insurance or pay a fine—after the Supreme Court previously preserved the ACA in decisions in 2012 and in 2015.
The high court isn’t placing the case on an accelerated schedule, meaning the justices won’t get to it before their summer break. Instead, the case will be scheduled for the court’s next term, which begins in October 2020 and runs through the following June.
The timing means the decision is unlikely to come until after election day, leaving the ACA in legal limbo. The slower timeline also means the Trump administration won’t necessarily be forced to grapple with U.S. health-care policy before voters go to the polls.
The New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December that a central feature of the ACA was unconstitutional: the requirement that most individuals carry health insurance or pay a penalty.
he ruling avoided saying whether the rest of the sprawling health law could remain in force without the mandate. The appeals court instead ordered the Texas judge who first heard the case to reconsider his decision that no part of the ACA remained valid.
The health law remains in effect during the litigation. President Trump has pledged to repeal the ACA and has long promised to release his own health plan. His administration is not defending the law in court.
Republican plaintiffs, led by the state of Texas, found an opening to challenge the law anew after Congress in 2017 reduced the insurance-mandate penalty to $0. Without a monetary penalty, Congress couldn’t justify the insurance mandate based on its power to levy taxes, the GOP states have argued.