Obamacare upheld

Well, this has been an interesting morning.

Here is what is available at the moment.  In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld almost all of Obamacare.  Justices Roberts, Breyer, Sotomoyer, Kagan and Ginsburg voted in the majority, while Justices Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas and Alito were in the minority.

In essence, here's what the ruling comes down to (understanding that it came out half an hour ago and there is still much parsing to be done).  First, in an opinion delivered by Chief Justice Roberts, the five majority justices ruled that, regardless of the Commerce clause, that the individual mandate provision IS valid under Congress' taxing powers.  As such, there was no need to rule on the constitutionality or severability of most of the rest of Obamacare.  The critical quote from the opinion:  "Nothing in our opinion precludes Congress from offering funds under the ACA to expand the availability of health care, and requiring that states accepting such funds comply with the conditions on their use." (p. 55) (and thanks to the SCOTUSblog for its guidance on this one)

Justice Roberts did find, however, that Congress could not take away Medicare funding for states that chose not to participate in Obamacare; what could be taken away, however, is new funds.  This is the only section of Obamacare that appears to have been affected by the Supreme Court.

In a concurring opinion delivered by Justice Ginsburg, Justice Ginsburg found all of Obamacare to be Constitutional, including the individual mandate and Medicare removal clause - this opinion, however, is not controlling (only Chief Justice Roberts opinion is).

Quite a historic day for the Supreme Court.
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