By a 6-3 vote, Justices upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, siding with the administration and blessing the government subsidies that have made affordable health insurance available to millions of Americans. The court, wrote The Washington Post, "affirmed an Internal Revenue Service ruling that the subsidies should be available not only in states that have set up their own health insurance exchanges, but also in states where consumers rely on the federal government exchange."
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion. Conservative Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented. Many of the ruling's beneficiaries are white southerners from Republican states (Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas, for example) whose leaders oppose the healthcare law.
