[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday declined [order list, PDF] to hear another challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) [text, PDF]. The court rejected an appeal [text, PDF] by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and the Alliance for Natural Health USA [advocacy websites] arguing that parts of the ACA were unconstitutional. They challenged the parts of the ACA that related to the individuals mandate and the tax, enacted to take care of the “free-rider problem.” The appeal further argued that the individual mandate violated the Takings Clause of the US Constitution [text], which requires the government to compensate individuals for any takings done for government purposes.

Obama’s health care reform [JURIST feature] has caused continued debate and legal action since it was passed in 2010. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that plaintiffs did not have standing to sue in a lawsuit challenging the delay of the ACAs employer mandate. In August the US Department of Health and Human Services [official website] issued proposed rules [JURIST report] to revise which for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations are exempt from the contraception mandate of the ACA. In March the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided [JURIST report] in favor of the Obama administration by declining to review the contraception mandate.