Case: Operating Engineers Trust Fund of Washington, D.C., et al. v. United States, No. 25-1050
Lower Court: Federal Circuit
Docketed: 2026-03-05
Status: Pending
Question Presented: Whether the ACA's requirement that group health plans contribute billions of dollars to subsidize reinsurance for third parties was a taking of the plans' private property.
In a petition filed March 2, 2026, Deepak Gupta asks the Supreme Court to review a Federal Circuit decision rejecting a Fifth Amendment takings challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s transitional reinsurance program. The petition, available on the Supreme Court docket, arrives after the Chief Justice granted an extension in December 2025, pushing the filing deadline to March 1, 2026.
The ACA’s transitional reinsurance program required group health plans to contribute billions of dollars into a fund that subsidized reinsurance for third parties. The petitioners, trust funds, argued that compelling them to transfer assets for the benefit of unrelated third parties amounted to a government appropriation of private property without just compensation under the Fifth Amendment.
The Federal Circuit disagreed, and the question now before the Court is whether that compelled transfer satisfies the constitutional threshold for a taking. The case implicates the line between permissible regulatory exactions and compensable takings. Solicitor General D. John Sauer will represent the government if the Court calls for a response. The April 6, 2026 response deadline means the Court could consider the petition at a spring conference.
The absence of amicus support at this stage is notable; it may reflect the program’s expiration or uncertainty about the petition’s prospects. Still, the question has practical reach. If the Court were to grant certiorari, its analysis of what constitutes a compensable taking in the context of mandatory benefit-program contributions could affect how future regulatory funding mechanisms are structured. Observers tracking ACA litigation and takings doctrine should follow the SCOTUSBlog coverage as the response deadline approaches.