Supreme Court dismisses ACA challenge

Last Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the challenge to the Affordable Care Act in a 7-2 decision. Court Justices did not rule on the constitutionality of the law, but said no harm was caused to the plaintiffs, and consequently there was no legal standing to sue, because Congress had reduced the individual mandate penalty to zero dollars.

"For these reasons, we conclude that the plaintiffs in this suit failed to show a concrete, particularized injury fairly traceable to the defendants' conduct in enforcing the specific statutory provision they attack as unconstitutional," Justice Breyer wrote in the decision. "They have failed to show that they have standing to attack as unconstitutional the Act's minimum essential coverage provision." Justices Alito and Gorsuch dissented from the majority opinion.