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Supreme Court to hear Obamacare case arguments after November election

A major case involving the Affordable Care Act will go before the U.S. Supreme Court once again, one week after the presidential election.
Credit: AP
The sun rises behind the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, June 29, 2020.

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — The U.S. Supreme Court will wait until after the November election to hear arguments in a lawsuit that threatens the Obama-era health care law.  

The court announced Wednesday that it would hear the case on Tuesday, Nov. 10, one week after the presidential election. 

The case involves an appeal by 20 mainly Democratic states of a lower-court ruling that declared part of the Affordable Care Act statute unconstitutional and cast a cloud over the rest. 

Defenders of the Affordable Care Act argued that the issues raised by the case are too important to let the litigation drag on for months or years in lower courts and that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans erred when it struck down the health law's now toothless requirement that Americans have health insurance. The 2-1 ruling was handed down in December 2019. 

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The case marks the third time the Supreme Court battled over Obamacare since it was passed in 2010, according to the Associated Press. The court notably upheld the law's individual mandate in 2012 in a 5-4 vote. 

The Trump administration has supported the total repeal of the health care law.

Credit: AP
FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2018, file photo, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court gather for a formal group portrait to include a new Associate Justice, top row, far right, at the Supreme Court Building in Washington. Seated from left: Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Associate Justice Samuel Alito Jr. Standing behind from left: Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan and Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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