The Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to Obamacare today, asserting that the plaintiffs – a collection of lawmakers from GOP-led states – lacked the appropriate standing to file the lawsuit.
The vote was 7-2, with Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch in the minority.
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the opinion, asserting that the plaintiffs “failed to show a concrete, particularized injury.”
The lawsuit, argued in November 2020, was the third failed challenge to the Affordable Care Act. It had received vociferous support from former President Donald Trump, who spent years railing against the 2010 health care law that was his predecessor’s top domestic achievement. But even two of Trump’s Supreme Court appointments – Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – rejected the case.
“With the passing years, the law gained in popularity and was woven into the fabric of the health care system. Its future now seems secure,” explains The New York Times.
The plaintiffs argued that the Affordable Care Act had become unconstitutional after Congress stripped away the penalty for failing to obtain coverage. It was a persuasive argument in lower courts, but today’s decision largely sidestepped that issue.
If the lawsuit was successful, the health insurance of 20 million Americans would have been in jeopardy.
