Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare in 5-4 Decision

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate and the bulk of the Affordable Care Act in a 5-4 this morning, surprising many court-watchers and breathing life into President Obama’s reelection hopes.

The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, found that the individual mandate did violate the Commerce Clause, but the high court upheld the provision as a tax.

Roberts joined the court’s liberal bloc, Justices Sonya Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan, alienating many Republicans who thought Roberts was sure to strike down the mandate. Justice Anthony Kennedy — usually considered the swing vote on close cases like this — firmly sided with the conservatives that the entire law was unconstitutional.

The decision does limit the Medicaid expansion embedded in the Affordable Care Act. Roberts’ narrow reading will give individual states more leeway in determining how — and perhaps if — the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion will actually be implemented. In short, if a state does not expand the Medicaid program required by the law, the federal government cannot withhold Medicaid funds.

Conservatives have criticized the Chief Justice, a Bush appointee, for creating a novel argument in his decision. During testimony, the Obama administration argued that the individual mandate was valid under the Commerce Clause. Roberts rejected that notion — originally leading antsy media outlets CNN and Fox news to incorrectly report the decision in a race to be first. But Roberts then clarified that the mandate was a valid exercise of Congress’ power to tax, and thus constitutional.

Democrats — who had largely resigned themselves to defeat — received the news with jubilation, but now face an awkward messaging predicament. Back in 2009, President Obama insisted that his health reform plan was not a tax. In the hours since the decision, Democrats and Republicans have engaged in a spin war over whether the President has broken his promise not to raise middle-class taxes. “The bill was sold to the American people on a deception,” according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

For his part, presidential hopeful Mitt Romney will endeavor to harness this conservative outrage to propel him to the White House. Romney has pledged to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, but many have been critical of his lack of policy specificity and the fact that he was the architect of the individual mandate in Massachusetts’ remarkably similar health reform bill.

The day was truly President Obama’s. “I obviously didn’t do it because it was good politics. I did it because I believed it was good for the country,” he said. “Five years from now, ten years from now, and twenty years from now, we’ll be better off because we had the courage to keep moving forward.”