President Obama’s healthcare law once again stands in legal peril after Supreme Court justices appeared sharply split along ideological lines during oral arguments Wednesday in a case that threatens to end insurance subsidies for more than 7 million Americans.Keep reading.
The four liberals among the court’s nine justices seemed ready to side with the Obama administration in rejecting the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act. But it was unclear whether they would get a fifth vote from the conservative side.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who helped rescue the law three years ago, gave no hint about how he might rule this time.
And Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, another possible swing vote, voiced some reservations about the challenge, but also said he was troubled by how the Obama administration had implemented the law.
The lawsuit — brought by a group of conservative and libertarian activists — argues that a strict reading of the statute makes health insurance subsidies available only in a handful states (including California) that established their own insurance marketplaces, also known as exchanges.
But 37 states elected instead to have the federal government fully or partially operate their marketplaces using the HealthCare.gov website.
In 2012, the Internal Revenue Service issued regulations making subsidies available for both state and federally run exchanges. Critics challenged the rule as illegal, citing a provision in the law that limits subsidies to an “exchange established by the state.”
Obama administration attorneys accused opponents of taking the provision out of context and argued that the overall law clearly intends to make the subsidies available nationwide.
In a worrisome sign for the administration, Kennedy questioned whether the IRS could make that decision on its own.
“It seems to me a drastic step for us to say that the Department of Internal Revenue Service and its director can make this call one way or the other when there are … billions of dollars of subsidies involved here,” he told U.S. Solicitor Gen. Donald Verrilli Jr., who was defending the law on behalf of the Obama administration.
“It has to be very, very clear,” Kennedy continued. “It seems to me a little odd” that the IRS went ahead on its own.
At the same time, Kennedy offered some hope to Obama’s lawyers. Twice, he said he agreed with states’ rights advocates who complained they had not been warned that opting for a federal exchange could cause many thousands of their residents to possibly lose their subsidized health insurance.
“There’s a serious constitutional problem if we adopt your argument,” Kennedy told Michael Carvin, the lawyer representing the challengers...
And check SCOTUS Blog, "Argument analysis: Setting up the private debate on the ACA."
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