"Supreme Court Upholds ACA Provision, Reshapes TCPA Landscape"

Listeners, there have been several significant developments involving the US Supreme Court over the past few days that you should know about. One of the most consequential headlines is the Court’s decision to uphold a key provision of the Affordable Care Act. In Braidwood Management Inc. v. Becerra, the justices voted 6-3 to maintain the ACA’s requirement that most health insurance plans must cover preventive services at no cost to patients. This means that vital services like annual wellness exams, cancer and diabetes screenings, HIV prevention, mental health assessments, and routine vaccinations will continue to be provided without copays or deductibles. This decision has been praised by healthcare leaders for safeguarding patients’ access to essential and potentially lifesaving care while broader challenges to the ACA move forward. Another major Supreme Court action involved the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. On June 20, the Court issued a landmark ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson Corp., dramatically changing how lower courts handle TCPA claims. The Supreme Court determined that district courts are no longer bound to follow Federal Communications Commission interpretations of the law; instead, they must interpret the TCPA independently. This decision is expected to trigger a wave of new litigation and may prompt businesses to reevaluate their consumer communications practices. Turning to immigration, the Supreme Court delivered a decision in Riley v. Bondi that will create new complexities for noncitizens fighting deportation orders. The Court ruled that the 30-day deadline to seek federal court review of a removal order begins as soon as the Department of Homeland Security issues a reinstatement or administrative removal order, even if the person is still seeking protection from removal in immigration court. Previously, most appeals courts and the Justice Department had agreed that the clock should not start until those protection proceedings end. The justices clarified, however, that missing the 30-day deadline is not an absolute barrier to review, as it is a claims-processing rule rather than a jurisdictional requirement. A related headline involves birthright citizenship. Several federal courts, reacting to a recent Supreme Court ruling, have narrowed the scope of their injunctions against an executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to noncitizen parents. The Supreme Court recently limited the ability of lower courts to issue broad, nationwide injunctions, instead pushing for narrower orders that focus on the specific plaintiffs involved. Following this, a New Hampshire federal judge issued an injunction protecting only infants affected by the policy, pending further appeals, while larger constitutional questions remain unsettled. There was also fresh commentary on how the Supreme Court is handling emergency relief requests, often referred to as the “shadow This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.