Conservatives have been dismissively and derisively calling the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Obamacare for some time now. The Administration has seemed to embrace it more recently, choosing to live or die by it perhaps as the law is really the centerpiece of his legislative achievements. The law has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States (WNYC).
The Court heard arguments on National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius and Florida v. United States Department of Health and Human Services earlier in the year and things looked dire for the government with much being made of the solicitor general's performance during oral argument. Leading up to oral argument, analysts seemed convinced that the law would be upheld. After the argument? Well, there are reports that some media outlets initially called it wrong and said that the law had fallen.
So as of right now what is clear is that the individual mandate has been upheld by the Court, although as a tax and not under the commerce clause argument. The federal government's ability to terminate a state's Medicaid payments is going to be narrowly read, although what that means remains to be seen.
So Obamacare does survive. The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts. He was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. Justices Samuel Alito, David Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.
You can find a live countdown of the news release at SCOTUS Blog. You can read the opinion for yourself here.
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