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Braidwood Management, Inc., et al. v. Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 23-10326 · judgment June 21, 2024


Certiorari denied · January 13, 2025
Pre-decision estimate: 27% cert probability (95% interval 19%–35%)

Before the decision, about 6.5× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel who has won certiorari before, a Fifth Circuit decision below, and a circuit split argued in the petition.

Question presented

The Affordable Care Act requires private health insurers to cover “preventive health services” without cost-sharing arrangements. See 42 U.S.C. § 300gg-13(a). But the statute does not specify or delineate the “preventive” care that private insurers must cover. Instead, section 300gg-13(a)(1)–(4) delegates this authority to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (the Task Force), the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) — and it empowers these bodies to unilaterally determine the preventive care that private health insurance must cover. The question presented in this cross-petition is: Does 42 U.S.C. § 300gg-13(a)(1)–(4) violate the non-delegation doctrine by empowering agencies to unilaterally decree the preventive care that private health insurers must cover, while failing to provide an “intelligible principle” to guide the discretion of those agencies? (i)

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Jonathan F. Mitchell
Mitchell Law PLLC

For respondent
Elizabeth B. Prelogar
Solicitor General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jan 13 2025
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Dec 18 2024
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/10/2025.
  3. Dec 09 2024
    Reply of petitioners Braidwood Management, Inc., et al. filed.
  4. Dec 02 2024
    Brief of respondents Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al. in opposition filed.
  5. Oct 21 2024
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 29, 2024)