31 Pages Posted: 11 Jan 2011 Last revised: 25 Mar 2012

Date Written: December 1, 2010

Abstract

Having undergone an extensive process of political discussion and debate, the Health Care Reform Act (properly the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) is now under intensive legal challenge with at least 20 different cases from both states and organizations and individuals currently under way. Although this litigation is at an early stage, there has already been considerable academic (and other) interest with a number of websites tracking the development of the litigation and providing links to the considerable commentary which has already been developed (albeit much of it inevitably speculative in nature). There have now been five substantive rulings on these challenges: three upholding the legislation (Thomas More Law Centre v Obama; Liberty Univ. v Geithner and Mead v Holder) and two declaring that it is (in whole or in part) unconstitutional (Virginia v Sebelius, and Florida v United States Dept of Health and Human Services ). All these cases are currently under appeal. This note discusses these rulings in some detail and also refers to a number of other ongoing cases.