Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare 5-4 (Court Document Enclosed)

In what is sure to be a hotpoint in this political cycle and maybe even the next few years, the Supreme Court of the United States of America upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with a 5-4 split decision vote. This act, better known as Obamacare, was an act that was meant to reel in rising medical costs in the United States by making healthcare a mandatory purchase for every American.

Chief Justice Roberts was joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor in upholding the mandate. Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his opinion that “the most straightforward reading of the individual mandate is that it commands individuals to purchase insurance. But, for the reasons explained, the Commerce Clause does not give Congress that power. It is therefore necessary to turn to the Government’s alternative argument: that the mandate may be upheld as within Congress’s power to “lay and collect Taxes.” Art. I, §8, cl. 1.”

To have Chief Justice Roberts take the side of the President was widely unexpected, as the only “wild card” as far as most people were concerned was Justice Kennedy.

There was one part of the law that was struck down. The vast expansion of Medicaid was voted down because the “federal government cannot penalize states for not participating in the new program by withholding existing Medicaid funds.”

This decision is sure to put the anti-Obamamcare camp into overdrive, and Mitt Romney is sure to use it as a rallying cry to get his camp firmly behind him. On the pro Obama side, he now has his signature piece of legislation validated, and he will go into the election on a high note.

The official opinion released by the Supreme Court is below:

Supreme Court

Twitter of course is having mixed reactions:

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