The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Court announced today. The Court decided to review three of the five appeals before it, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s decision, which struck down the insurance mandate in a divided three-judge panel.

The Supreme Court will address the following issues:

• The constitutionality of the insurance mandate;
• Whether some or all of the ACA must fail if the insurance mandate is struck down;
• The constitutionality of the Medicaid program expansion; and
• Whether the Anti-Injunction Act bars some or all of the challenges to the ACA.

The cases will not be grouped together. However, the Supreme Court scheduled 5½ hours for oral argument on the above issues, to be held in March 2012. The time allotted for oral argument appears to be a record, with the closest case, a 2003 case involving the constitutionality of campaign finance law, being allotted 4 hours for oral argument.

The Health Law team at von Briesen will continue to monitor and report on the progress of the ACA challenge, including oral argument and the Supreme Court’s decision, which is expected late in June 2012.