by Robert King | Jun 17, 2021
The Supreme Court ruled that a collection of red states do not have standing to challenge the legality of the Affordable Care Act, choosing to preserve the law once again.
The court ruled 7-2 that the red states don’t have standing to challenge the law’s individual mandate. The opinion delivered Thursday said that the states did not show a “past or future injury” related to the enforcement of the mandate.
Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito voted against the decision.
The lawsuit was led by a collection of red states that argued the ACA became unconstitutional when the 2017 tax law rendered the individual mandate penalty to zero. The states argued that the law left the mandate unconstitutional because it is a tax with no penalty.
They also argued that the rest of the law should be struck down alongside the mandate as the rest of the law cannot stand alone.
A collection of blue states led by California countered that the rest of the law should be left intact. They argued that if Congress intended to get rid of the law then it would have done so in the 2017 tax reform law, but it did not.
