Hicks Thomas Files US Supreme Court Amicus Brief for Key Scholars Challenging Health Care Law Subsidies
HOUSTON, March 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Among the legal briefs U.S. Supreme Court justices will be reviewing in the challenge to subsidies for the Affordable Care Act is one filed by the Houston-based litigation boutique Hicks Thomas LLP on behalf of the two scholars who spearheaded the attack on the law.
The amicus curiae, or friend of the court, brief supports the plaintiffs' challenge to the law in King v. Burwell based on the arguments of Case Western Reserve law professor Jonathan H. Adler and the Cato Institute's Michael F. Cannon.
"If you only have time to read three amicus briefs, start with the brief filed on behalf of law professor Jonathan Adler and Michael F. Cannon," the magazine National Review recommends in its Bench Memos blog.
It was the scholarly paper by Adler and Cannon in 2012 that outlined the law's failure to authorize tax credits to help citizens buy insurance through the health insurance exchange established by the federal government. The federal exchange was set up to serve citizens in the more than 30 states, including Texas, which failed to establish state-run programs.
"The Affordable Care Act says that tax credits are available to certain taxpayers who enroll in a health exchange 'established by the state,'" says Hicks Thomas appellate specialist Eric Grant, who filed the brief from the firm's Sacramento, California, office. "In extending those credits to taxpayers enrolled in the exchange established by the federal government, the Internal Revenue Service unlawfully rewrote the statute. It's that simple."
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case on Wednesday.
Mr. Grant himself has argued before the Supreme Court. He also served as clerk to the late Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and to Justice Clarence Thomas and worked in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. A certified specialist in appellate law, he has practiced law with Hicks Thomas for six years.
Founded in 1997, Texas-based Hicks Thomas, LLP, is a premier litigation firm representing plaintiffs and defendants across the nation. With offices in Amarillo, Houston, and Sacramento, California, the firm provides in-depth experience in cases involving oil and gas, environmental, complex commercial, toxic tort, products liability, corporate governance, securities, banking, insurance coverage, transportation, trade secrets and business litigation. Visit the firm at http://www.hicks-thomas.com.
For more information on the amicus curiae filed by Hicks Thomas, please contact Kit Frieden at 800-559-4534 or [email protected].
SOURCE Hicks Thomas LLP
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