IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2021
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge by Texas and other states to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. In California v. Texas, Texas and 17 other states challenged the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act based on the mandate that requires people to have health insurance. Texas argued that the ACA’s individual mandate is unconstitutional and that the entire law should be struck down. The Supreme Court rejected these claims because the plaintiff states did not have the standing to bring them. Texas and the other plaintiffs failed to show that they were harmed as a result of any unlawful conduct by the government.
The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law applauds the Supreme Court’s decision. “Today’s decision is an enormous victory for people with disabilities and for all Americans,” said Jennifer Mathis, Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. “The Affordable Care Act has saved lives and enabled millions of people with disabilities to live full lives in their own homes and communities.”
The Bazelon Center has fought to protect the Affordable Care Act numerous times over the past few years. In May of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the Bazelon Center coordinated the filing of an amicus brief with 18 other leading disability rights organizations, represented pro bono by law firms Dentons and Baker Hostetler, along with the Bazelon Center, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, and the ACLU. The brief highlighted the many crucial health care protections that Congress provided for people with disabilities in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including barring people from being denied coverage or charged more due to pre-existing conditions, expanding home and community-based services options, strengthening mental health parity requirements and making coverage of needed services available and affordable to millions of people with disabilities for the first time.
