Related: ACA preventive care mandate still in effect, except for firms that sued: Court ruling

The Justice Department, in its petition, stated that the 5th Circuit's "legal rationale would inflict immense practical harms" related to the task force in charge of listing the types of preventive services that insurance companies must cover.

"Millions of Americans rely on insurance coverage for preventive services without cost sharing," the Justice Department added.

The Supreme Court has yet to schedule oral arguments in the case.

It is unclear how the incoming Trump administration will handle the dispute. President-elect Donald Trump has been hostile to the 2010 health care law, but he not weighed in on preventive care benefits. His pick for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, is a cardiothoracic surgeon who has spoken often about the need for wellness and for patients having deep relationships with personal physicians.

The challenge to the task force comes from a group of religious individuals and companies opposed to providing, among other things, HIV preventive medication, believing that would make them "complicit in facilitating homosexual behavior, drug use, and sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman."

The 5th Circuit found the task force members to be "principal officers" subject to the appointments clause in light of the lack of supervision over their legally binding recommendations for covered services.

The New Orleans-based appeals court cited language in the ACA requiring the members' recommendations to be insulated from "political pressure." The court also likened their role to the members of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, whom the Supreme Court found to be principal officers in its 2021 United States v. Arthrex  Inc. decision.

The justices are expected to hear the case later this term and render a decision by July.

The case is Becerra v. Braidwood Management, No. 24-316.