Supreme Court justices are meeting Feb. 21 to decide whether to take up a closely watched case that threatens to wipe out all of Obamacare.

The justices placed the closed-door meeting on their calendar Wednesday, indicating that they were still undecided about whether to take up the case, Texas v. Azar. Should they decide to take it up, then it is possible that a decision about the future of the healthcare law would land sometime in June, ahead of the 2020 elections. Observers do not expect the justices will take up the case because it's still making its way through the lower courts.

Justices have sent mixed signals on whether they will take up the case, which centers on the question of whether a change Congress made to Obamacare renders it unconstitutional. The justices, in January, declined Democrats' request that they fast-track the appeal on Obamacare. Later in the month, they denied a request from Republicans to allow them more time to file a response to Democrats, leaving open the possibility that a decision on whether to take up the case might still come. Five justices were needed to fast-track the appeal on the case, but only four will be needed to decide whether to hear it.

Democrats want justices to hear the case at the end of April or to hold a special sitting in May, though the justices may still decide to take up the case during a term after the November elections. The party believes that keeping the threat against Obamacare front and center in voters' minds will help them run effectively against President Trump and Republicans in November.

Texas is the result of a lawsuit by Republican state officials who said that Obamacare must be struck down on the grounds that it lost a critical component when the 2017 GOP tax overhaul zeroed out its fine on the uninsured. Republicans, who had the support of the Trump administration, said the fine had been central to Obamacare and that the rest of its provisions would not work and should not stand without it.

Judge Reed O'Connor, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, agreed with the GOP states, but the case was appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. On Dec. 18, the appellate judges ruled 2-1 that the health insurance mandate was unconstitutional but that the rest of the law needed further analysis by the lower courts to see whether some parts could be separated out and others could not.

The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to hear the case only after it goes through the lower courts. Liberal states and House Democrats want the Supreme Court to expedite the case, saying that having it unresolved leaves healthcare providers and patients with too much uncertainty.