The Affordable Care Act survived another legal challenge as the U.S. Supreme Court held the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the lawsuit.
Several states banded together to challenge the constitutionality of the individual mandate provision of the ACA. Under the law, most Americans must have health coverage or pay a tax penalty. In 2017, the tax penalty was reduced to $0. Challengers to the ACA posit that the individual mandate was unconstitutional when the penalty was reduced to $0 and the individual mandate part of ACA could not be separated from the rest of the law.
The plaintiffs were successful with their arguments in the lower courts. On appeal, the case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court held that the people bringing the case were not sufficiently harmed to be able to bring a claim. This position threw the case out of the court with no ruling on the merit of the underlying issues.
With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the Affordable Care Act remains the law of the land.
