Unfair Coercion, or Greater Deference? Two New Sides of King v. Burwell

Tom Miller – Litigation challenging the legality of an Internal Revenue Service rule that became final on May 2012 has traveled a long, winding, and contentious path. The IRS rule authorized the distribution of federal premium assistance tax credits in all health benefits exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (the “ACA”). However, potential legal problems with reconciling various sections of the final legislation involving those tax credits were identified as early as December 6, 2010. On September 19, 2012, the first of four different legal challenges to the IRS rule was filed in federal district court in Oklahoma. In 2013, subsequent lawsuits were filed in three different federal district courts in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Indiana. After a mixed record of wins and losses in those lower courts, King v. Burwell became the first case to reach the Supreme Court.

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Citation: Thomas P. Miller, Unfair Coercion, or Greater Deference? Two New Sides of King v. Burwell, 23 U. Miami Bus. L. Rev. 297 (2015).