The Supreme Court on Thursday removed a Trump-era Medicaid dispute from its calendar after urging from the Biden administration.
The case, which addressed a work requirement rule issued by the previous administration, concerned its implementation in the state program “Arkansas Works.” Under the system, Medicaid recipients had to participate in job programs to maintain eligibility. It inspired about a dozen other states to set up similar programs before it faced legal challenges that ended up at the Supreme Court.
BIDEN ASKS SUPREME COURT TO DISMISS TRUMP ‘PUBLIC CHARGE’ IMMIGRATION CASE
The Biden administration in late February asked the court to drop the case after the president signed an executive order reversing Trump’s stance on Medicaid works programs. In a letter to the court, acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote that the administration was reviewing Trump’s policies and that it believed the case should be thrown out.
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously against Arkansas, as well as then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar, finding that the Trump Medicaid rule could bar people from health coverage.
“Failure to consider whether the project will result in coverage loss is arbitrary and capricious,” Judge David Sentelle wrote in the court’s opinion, adding that, as a result of the program, more than 18,000 Medicaid recipients lost their coverage.
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Azar and Arkansas Solicitor General Nicholas Bronni appealed to the Supreme Court last summer. When the court accepted the case, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson praised the move, saying that the ability for states to impose Medicaid work requirements was one of “national significance.”
The case is the latest in a barrage of litigation that the high court has dropped since Biden reversed his predecessor’s positions. Earlier this year, the court removed a series of cases related to immigration from its calendar, including ones addressing Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy and a long-running dispute over Mexican border wall funding.
