Here is Politico on the Texas challenge to the Affordable Care Act:
The Supreme Court on Thursdaythrew out a lawsuit threatening the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, finding that Republican-led states behind the case did not have legal ground to challenge the landmark health care law.
The 7-2 decision may serve as the final chapter in the decade-long legal assault on Obamacare, arriving as President Joe Biden seeks to build on the law’s coverage provisions. It’s also the final blow to former President Donald Trump’s pledge to rip up his predecessor’s signature health care law, after his administration had supported the red states who brought the lawsuit.
The opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer was joined by the court’s two other liberal justices and all but two conservatives, including Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. By finding that the red states and individual plaintiffs couldn’t contest a change to the law, the conservative justices were essentially shielded from grappling with larger questions about whether Obamacare was no longer constitutional.
“[W]e conclude that the plaintiffs in this suit failed to show a concrete, particularized injury fairly traceable to the defendants’ conduct in enforcing the specific statutory provision they attack as unconstitutional,” Breyer wrote.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas agreed, adding: “Although this Court has erred twice before in cases involving the Affordable Care Act, it does not err today.”
Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
Read the rest here.
Here is CBS on the Philadelphia LGBTQ case:
The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a Catholic foster care agency that was cut off by the city of Philadelphia from receiving foster care referrals because it refused to work with same-sex couples looking to serve as foster parents because of the agency’s religious beliefs about marriage.
The high court unanimously ruled that the city’s refusal to contract with Catholic Social Services unless it agreed to certify same-sex couples as foster parents violated the First Amendment. The dispute was the latest to come before the justices that pitted religious freedom against LGBTQ rights. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the opinion for the court.
The case before the court began in 2018, when the city learned from a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter that two of the 30 agencies it contracted with to provide foster care services, Catholic Social Services and Bethany Christian Services, had policies against certifying married same-sex couples as foster parents, citing religious objections to gay marriage.
While Bethany Christian Services changed its rule, Catholic Social Services left its policy in place. Philadelphia officials then halted referrals of foster children to Catholic Social Services, arguing the agency violated a decades-old city ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
In response to the freeze, the foster care agency and a group of foster parents filed suit, arguing the move by Philadelphia officials violated their First Amendment rights of freedom of religion and speech. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the city and found it neutrally applied its nondiscrimination policy. Catholic Social Services, the appeals court said, was not entitled to an exemption from the city’s law.
Catholic Social Services appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, claiming the city targeted it based on hostility to its religious beliefs and warning a ruling from the high court against it would force Catholic Social Services and other religious foster care and adoption agencies to close their doors. The Trump administration backed the Catholic foster care agency.
Read the rest here. I hope this is the final real assault on the Affordable Care Act. I am also guessing that there will be many more religious liberty cases similar to this one.
