House, Democratic-led states ask Supreme Court to immediately decide fate of Obamacare

Calling the law a "fixture of the American health-care system" Donald Verrilli, a lawyer for the House, urged the justices in legal briefs to review a "remarkable" lower court decision that "threatens profound destabilization of the health care system."

"The present case represents yet another effort by litigants who disagree with the policy judgments embodied in the ACA to use the courts, rather than the democratic process, to undo the work of the people's elected representatives," the filing states.

Last month, a federal appeals court held that the law's individual mandate was unconstitutional, but sent the case back down to a lower court to decide whether other provisions of the sprawling law should remain in effect.

The petition filed by supporters of the law is a long shot bid because the Supreme Court does not usually like to take up an issue until it has made its way through the lower courts. But if the necessary four justices agree to hear the case and expedite it for this term -- it would mean that the justices would render a decision concerning the fate of the controversial law this spring, just as the presidential election gears up.

And although the Trump administration believes the entire law should ultimately be invalidated, it may not look forward to such a decision impacting millions of Americans coming down before the election.

In 2012, Chief Justice John Roberts cast the key vote in the 5-4 decision upholding the Affordable Care Act's holding that the individual mandate was valid under Congress' taxing power. But in 2017, the Republican-led Congress cut the tax penalty for those who lacked insurance to zero as part of the year-end tax overhaul.

Texas and other Republican-led states sued arguing that since the mandate was no longer tied to a specific tax penalty, it had lost its legal underpinning. They also argued that because the individual mandate was intertwined with a multitude of other provisions, the entire law should fall, including protections for people with preexisting conditions.

This story is breaking and will be updated.