Supreme Court Upholds ACA Preventive Care Mandate 6-3 in Kennedy v. Braidwood

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, Inc., 606 U.S. 748, reversing the lower courts and upholding the ACA Section 2713 preventive care mandate. Justice Kavanaugh wrote the majority joined by Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Barrett, and all three liberal justices. The majority held USPSTF members are inferior officers, not principal officers, because the HHS Secretary can remove them at will and veto their recommendations during a one-year implementation window. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented. The ruling confirmed three secretarial powers: at-will removal, request to withdraw draft recommendations, and veto during the one-year window. The ruling preserved free preventive care for approximately 150 million privately insured Americans but simultaneously gave the executive branch more direct control over USPSTF than it had before.