Author: Richard Wolf, USA TODAY

The justices did not indicate whether they believe President Trump has the right to exclude as many as 11 million people from the population base.

The president seeks to exclude undocumented immigrants from census calculations used to apportion House seats, electoral votes and federal funds.

It was a reversal from earlier actions taken by the high court in response to state restrictions on organized religion during the pandemic.

The fate of the law dominated much of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing last month. Two other justices appear ready to save the ACA.

The threat to more than 20 million consumers’ health coverage, along with other popular provisions, is the biggest case on the Supreme Court’s docket.

It won’t take long for Republicans to learn if Barrett is the reliable conservative upon whom they raced to bestow a seat on the Supreme Court.

If President Trump and Senate Republicans can get a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, it will mark the biggest change there since 1991.

Even as President Trump readied a potential replacement, Ginsburg’s family, friends, former clerks and colleagues honored her with a last goodbye.

Ginsburg, 87, died late Friday on the even of Rosh Hashanah following a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

If the justices are deadlocked, they can find an incremental solution, reschedule the case for the next term, or leave a lower court ruling intact.