How You Can Read SCOTUS' Obamacare Opinion

On Thursday morning, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold Affordable Care Act tax subsidies that essentially make the administration's healthcare plan affordable in most states — in other words, allowing Obamacare to continue to function. A ruling in the opposite direction would have gutted Obamacare's affordability for 6.4 million Americans, just because of the states they live in. You can read the Supreme Court's full opinion on Obamacare here, on the Supreme Court's official federal website, which includes Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent, along with Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito, who agreed with Scalia.

Scalia begins his passionate dissent with, "The Court holds that when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act says “Exchange established by the State” it means “Exchange established by the State or the Federal Government.” That is of course quite absurd, and the Court’s 21 pages of explanation make it no less so." Funnily enough, he continues for exactly 21 pages, arguing that the tax credits should only be implemented by states that had set up their own healthcare exchanges, or the very nature of the Affordable Care Act becomes meaningless. At one point, he writes, "We should call this SCOTUScare" in a direct challenge to Chief Justice John Roberts, who voted in favor of maintaining affordable healthcare regardless of the state a person lives in.

The administration had remained confident for the entirety of the period the Supreme Court debated the measure, stating that it had no Plan B and was confident the justices would rule in Obamacare's favor.

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