Supreme Court Argues Over Who Controls Preventive‑care Task Force and Its Authority

At oral argument before the Supreme Court, lawyers for the government and challengers sparred over whether members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are principal officers who must be appointed by the President with Senate confirmation or inferior officers subject to supervision by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The question matters because the task force’s “A” and “B” ratings make preventive services coverage mandatory under the Affordable Care Act; if the court treats the members as principal officers, many past recommendations and the process for issuing future mandates could be declared invalid or require remedial steps. Government counsel argued that the secretary exercises meaningful supervisory control — removal at will, a mandatory minimum interval that delays a recommendation’s effective date, and regulatory authority that can require preapproval — and that those powers make the task force inferior officers. “Task force members are inferior officers because they are subject to ample supervision by the secretary,” counsel told…