Supreme Court to hear arguments on pivotal case that decides fate of ACA after election

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit over the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on Nov. 10, a week after the presidential election.

The court was likely to schedule the hearing after the election that takes place Nov. 3. A decision on the case, which will decide whether the ACA is struck down, is expected in June 2021.

The case centers on a lawsuit brought by Texas and 17 red states. The lawsuit focuses on the ACA’s individual mandate for everyone to have insurance. The 2017 tax reform law zeroed out the penalty for the individual mandate.

The lawsuit claims the mandate is unconstitutional, and therefore the rest of the law needs to be scrapped.

A group of 20 blue states led by California is arguing the law can be severed from the mandate.

A federal district court judge sided with the red states in December 2018. An appeals court ruled last December that the mandate was unconstitutional but punted the decision to the lower court on whether the mandate can be severed from the rest of the law.

California and the other blue states appealed to the Supreme Court, which decided to hear the case in their term that starts in the fall. The Trump administration has sided with the red states in supporting the lawsuit.