The Supreme Court kicked off the first of the seven biggest decisions it's issuing in the coming days with another major win for ObamaCare. The verdict: The court upheld the federal tax subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, voting 6-3 to preserve health insurance for 8.7 million Americans and solidifying President Obama's signature domestic achievement, the AP reports. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy—who dissented in the 2012 decision upholding the law—sided with their liberal colleagues in the vote. Writing for the majority, Roberts stated, "Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them." Further, "tax credits are available to individuals in states that have a federal exchange," per the Los Angeles Times. If the credits were disallowed, he continued, it "could well push a state's individual market into a death spiral."
Meanwhile, Justice Antonin Scalia calls the majority's decision "pure applesauce" and accuses his colleagues of "interpretive jiggery-pokery" in a 21-page dissent that nearly reaches Walt Frazier levels with its colorful language, Talking Points Memo reports. "You would think the answer would be obvious—so obvious there would hardly be a need for the Supreme Court to hear a case about it," he writes, per Mother Jones, adding in a comment that's getting lots of Twitter reaction as one of the snarkiest comments made about the case yet: "[The decision] rewrites the law to make tax credits available everywhere. We should start calling this law SCOTUScare." Joining him in his dissent were justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, TPM notes. (More US Supreme Court stories.)
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