Supreme Court: Affordable Care Act Is Constitutional

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. The health insurance mandate, also known as "Obamacare" was found to be "permissible under Congress's taxing authority." The full ruling (PDF) is now available, and the court's opinion begins on page 7. Amy Howe from SCOTUSblog summarized the ruling thus: "The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn't comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding." Further coverage is available from CNN, the NY Times, and Fox.

Comments

First dissent

[Anonymous Coward]

First dissent

Re:First dissent

[gman003]

Is there something inherently wrong with the US?

Yes.

Re:First dissent

[PopeRatzo]

I weep for my country, for it is dead. We now have a "ruling regime", not a government of, by, and for the People. And because I know God is just, I also tremble in fear for my country.

But thank God your right to be overly dramatic has been upheld.

SCREW EVERYONE ELSE

[Anonymous Coward]

I got MY healthcare.

You and your family can take a FLYING LEAP.

The most selfish American generation says SCREW YOU!!

Brilliant!

[onyxruby]

Brilliant brainstorm, save the most important piece of democratic legislation written in decades by calling it a tax. The fact that a conservative Republican is the one that came up with this is true irony.

It's not a tax

[DigiShaman]

It's not a tax. Obama even said so. We have a honest man in the house. Why are you all doubting him?

Re:Political news polluting this site

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we please stop with all the fucking political news stories now polluting slashdot? This use to be a great site that delt with technical stories, now it's just legal bullshit between samsung and apple and political garbage such as this and non-stop global warming nonsense.

You're Right!! Let's go back to the good old days of SCO vs IBM.

Re:So from here on out ...

[Nkwe]

carrot for the top 1%, stick for the rest.

The 1% can have carrot top.

The USA is too socialist! I'm moving to Canada.

[imuffin]

My favorite is the conservatives who, upset that the SCOTUS upheld the individual mandate, say they're moving to Canada because America is just too socialist.

Teabagger Party

[TiggertheMad]

I for one look forward to our new DMV styled medical overlords. I hope I don't have to visit a medical center with an artery spouting blood....and get put at the back of the line because my paperwork wasn't filled out quite right.

Yes, I am sure that is what is going to happen. The Tea Party called, and they want their hysterical idiocy back.

This is why the right wing comes off like a pack of retarded children. They take the perfectly acceptable point of view that government should be minimalistic and non-intrusive, and warp it until they look like a pack of asylum escapees.

Re:Teabagger Party

[fearofcarpet]

This is why the right wing comes off like a pack of retarded children. They take the perfectly acceptable point of view that government should be minimalistic and non-intrusive, and warp it until they look like a pack of asylum escapees.

I don't want the government meddling in my medicare, thank you very much! If the government would get rid of all these regulations, stop taxing and spending, and just stick to the basics, like keeping gays from marrying and making sure no one smokes pot or uses birth control, then we would all be billionaires. Of course, you couldn't possibly understand that, as you are clearly a communist.

Re:If $3000 is the societal cost to you not

[catmistake]

Liberty.
Self-rule.
Pro-choice.
A Freman not a Serf to be ordered about by the Congressional lords' random wishes.

The absence says more than the presence...
- Fremen warning

The thing was written with salt
-Freman saying

Like the knowlege of your own being, the sietch forms a firm base from which you move out into the world and into the universe.
- Freman Teaching

Never to forgive-never to forget.
- Fremen Maxim

The surest way to keep a secret is to make people belive they already know the answer.
- Ancient Freman Wisdom

Four things cannot be hidden – love, smoke, a pillar of fire, and a man striding across the open bled.
- Freman Wisdom

Truth suffers from too much analysis.
- Ancient Fremen Saying

You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die.
- Fremen Saying

When the center of the storm does not move, you are in its path.
- Ancient Freman Wisdom

You have damp hands!
-Freman curse

Re:Well...not so much

[chad.koehler]

Calm down and have another diet Coke with your double Whopper.