Jonathan H. Adler

Adler's research and writing on the Affordable Care Act is credited with inspiring litigation that led to a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the lawfulness of tax credits in states that failed to create their own health insurance exchanges.[2] Adler first wrote an article for a 2011 health care symposium in which he argued that the text of the Affordable Care Act did not authorize tax credits in states that refused to set up their own health insurance exchanges.[10] At the time, this did not seem like a significant observation as the Supreme Court had not yet decided NFIB v. Sebelius and it appeared that most states would voluntarily create their own exchanges.[11]

As states started to resist implementing the Affordable Care Act, Adler co-authored several pieces with Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, arguing that that an IRS rule authorizing tax credits in states that did not create their own exchanges would be unlawful.[12][13] Adler and Cannon's arguments were controversial, and prompted significant academic response.[14] Adler and Cannon's work also prompted several lawsuits challenging the lawfulness of the tax credits, including Halbig v. Sebelius and King v. Burwell.[15]

Adler and Cannon filed amicus briefs defending their research in several of the cases. In the end, however, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Adler and Cannon's interpretation by a 6–3 vote in King v. Burwell. Adler's scholarship has also been relied upon in other Supreme Court cases, and was cited by Chief Justice Roberts in his City of Arlington v. FCC dissent[16] and by Justice Gorsuch in Kisor v. Wilkie.[17]

Adler is currently a tenured professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, where he teaches courses in environmental, regulatory, and constitutional law. He is the director of the law school's Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Regulation.[18] In 2011, Adler was named the inaugural holder of the Johan Verheij Memorial Professorship at CWRU.[19]

Adler is a contributing editor to the conservative National Review Online and a contributor to "The Volokh Conspiracy". He blogged anonymously under the pseudonym "Juan Non-Volokh" at "The Volokh Conspiracy" until May 1, 2006.[20]

Adler serves on the advisory board of the NFIB Legal Foundation, and the Environmental Law Reporter and ELI Press Advisory Board of the Environmental Law Institute.[3]

In 2004, Adler received the Paul M. Bator Award. In 2007, the Case Western Reserve University Law Alumni Association awarded Adler their annual "Distinguished Teacher Award."[3]