Amicus Brief in Supreme Court Health Care Suit

Today, along with co-counsel from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, I filed this amicus brief on behalf of former Surgeon General David Satcher and 78 child welfare, disability, education, health care, women’s sports, veterans, and other organizations in the Supreme Court's case considering the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. The brief addresses a piece of the case that hasn't gotten a ton of public attention -- the challenge to the constitutionality under the Constitution's Spending Clause of the ACA's expansion of Medicaid to cover everyone with an income up to 133% of the poverty line. Our brief argues that the challenge to the Medicaid expansion, if accepted, could put in constitutional jeopardy a range of statutes enacted pursuant to the Spending Clause, both inside and outside of the medical care context.