The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Oral argument in Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center
This morning the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center. I previewed the case for SCOTUSBlog. My post begins:
The specific dispute in the case is whether the state's Medicaid reimbursements should be invalidated under a provision of federal law, 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(30)(A). But the question underlying that dispute has implications far beyond Medicaid.
That underlying question is whether the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution gives plaintiffs a cause of action to enjoin state action as preempted, even when the preempting statute does not. The case exposes a tension between the two very different ways the Court has viewed causes of action in the constitutional and statutory contexts, and it is unclear which one will prevail.
