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The Arizona Legislature needed only a simple-majority vote to expand the state’s Medicaid program in 2013, a Superior Court judged ruled on Wednesday. The case hinges on whether a hospital assessment lawmakers approved to fund the expansion, which extended health-care coverage to more than 250,000 low-income Arizonans, is a fee, as its proponents argued, or a tax. (Pitzl, 8/26)

A judge ruled Wednesday that a hospital assessment that pays for the expansion of the state's Medicaid program did not require a supermajority vote of the Legislature to be enacted and is therefore constitutional. The ruling from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Douglas Gerlach comes more than 18 months after the expansion went into effect and means about 350,000 Arizonans who have gained coverage will continue to receive health care insurance. (Christie, 8/26)

The Alaska Legislature’s high-stakes lawsuit to stop Gov. Bill Walker from expanding the state’s public Medicaid health care program gets its first appearance in court Thursday. ... Margaret Paton-Walsh, one of the state attorneys managing the team of lawyers working on Walker’s defense, said she expected to be at her office past midnight Wednesday, with a filing deadline at 11 a.m. Thursday. It's not clear, she added, whether Pfiffner would issue a ruling from the bench Thursday, or some time later. The Legislature is seeking a court order that would stop Walker’s administration from acting unilaterally to expand Medicaid under provisions of Obamacare to newly cover up to 40,000 low-income Alaskans. Without an order, expansion is set to take effect Sept. 1, based on a 45-day notice Walker gave a legislative committee in July. (Herz, 8/26)