The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the United States Solicitor General to file a response within 30 days to Liberty University’s request for a re-hearing in federal appellate court of its claims in the case of Liberty Univ. v. Geithner. In that case, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) barred it from entertaining Liberty University’s pre-enforcement challenges against the Affordable Care Act. Because the Supreme Court subsequently ruled in National Federation of Independent Business, et al. v. Sebelius that the AIA did not apply in the context of the ACA, Liberty University has petitioned the Supreme Court to effectively force the Fourth Circuit to rehear the case, on the grounds that the Fourth Circuit erroneously dismissed Liberty’s case in its entirety based on the AIA. Liberty contends that because its initial lawsuit involved a challenge to the individual mandatory coverage requirement on religious grounds – an argument the Supreme Court did not reach in NFIB v. Sebelius – and also to the ACA’s employer mandate, there are sufficient grounds to warrant a rehearing.

For more information on legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), click here and here.