SG's Universal-Vacatur Petition Is No. 26-491, HHS v. Texas Medical Association: A No Surprises Act Rule Case From the Fifth Circuit En Banc, Response Due Nov. 13

The Solicitor General’s petition on universal vacatur is No. 26-491, Department of Health and Human Services, et al. v. Texas Medical Association, et al.. It was docketed on the Supreme Court’s own docket on Oct 14 2026 (docketing and filing date). The response is due November 13, 2026 (as of the docket page read for this entry; no extension is shown).. The docket lists only the petition so far: no response, waiver, extension, distribution date or conference date.

The vehicle is a No Surprises Act rule case, not an election or DHS case. The Fifth Circuit sitting en banc entered judgment on August 11, 2026 (decision date) in the case below. The underlying suit is a challenge by a medical association, a Texas hospital and air-ambulance providers to the 2021 interim final rule on how insurers compute the “qualifying payment amount” for out-of-network billing. The district court (E.D. Tex.) vacated provisions of the rule, and the en banc court upheld universal vacatur of them. That settles the open item in the earlier entry 2026-10-14–trump-admin-petitions-scotus-limit-courts-universal-vacatur-agency-rules-fifth-circuit: the court is the Fifth Circuit, and the capture lead’s “No Surprises Act” description is correct. Both describe one case.

Question presented: whether Section 706(2) of the APA authorizes courts to enter universal vacatur of agency rules that courts have held unlawful and, if so, in what circumstances.

The government’s own account of its vehicle (an advocate’s argument, not a finding): the petition says the case presents “a good vehicle” because the en banc court did not address the “set aside” argument and relied on circuit precedent making vacatur the “default” remedy. It concedes there is no circuit conflict and argues that should not preclude review. Judge Ho concurred in the judgment while writing that universal vacatur “challenges our basic conception of the judicial power.”

Which corpus cases would have their remedy questioned if the Court granted. The petition targets the default status of universal vacatur under 706(2). These corpus rulings were vacaturs under the APA; none is linked to this docket, and none has been stayed on this basis:

• Common Cause v. DOJ (D.D.C.): Judge Sooknanan’s vacatur of the Voter List Maintenance Policy, and DOJ’s pending stay motion. See 2026-10-09–sooknanan-vacates-doj-voter-list-maintenance-policy and 2026-10-16–doj-moves-stay-pending-appeal-sooknanan-voter-list-maintenance-vacatur.
• The SAVE database ruling, where the court ordered DHS to set aside and vacate the 2025 modifications: 2026-06-22–sooknanan-blocks-save-voter-purge-database-unlawful.

The petition is pending. The earlier entry’s page-count figure is the press’s description of the filing, and this entry does not repeat it.