Supreme Court Dismisses ACA Case for Lack of Standing

On June 17, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, dismissed a challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) constitutionality by finding that the states and other plaintiffs in the case lacked standing to challenge the law [Texas v. California, Docket No. 19-840 (2021)].

In November 2020, the Court heard oral arguments for Texas v. California. The case asked the justices to weigh in on three questions:

1. Whether the challengers in the Texas case have a legal right to sue
2. Whether the mandate that individuals have health insurance coverage is now unconstitutional because the penalty for not having insurance has been reduced to zero
3. If the individual mandate is unconstitutional, whether it can be separated from the rest of the ACA

The Court did not rule on the merits of the case as the plaintiffs did not suffer any injury so they did not have the legally required standing to bring the issue before the Court.

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Jyme Mariani, Esq., is Managing Editor of Payroll Currently and Payroll Information Resources for the APA.