Health Reform and the Constitutional Challenges
Background
Shortly after President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)[1] into law, opponents filed a series of legal challenges in federal court, arguing that for various reasons the Act is unconstitutional. Because the cases have the power to potentially disrupt implementation of health reform, this health reform implementation brief provides an overview of these legal challenges, focusing on the major claims they raise, as well as on two cases filed by states. The Brief opens by summarizing the cases and describes the provisions of the U.S. Constitution that form the basis of the claims raised by the plaintiffs. It also reviews the preliminary procedural issues that the courts must address before reaching the merits of the Constitutional claims themselves. The Brief then considers past constitutional cases decided by the United States Supreme Court that bear on the outcome of the plaintiffs’ claims and concludes with a brief discussion of the implementation issues raised by the cases.