Counsel Corner
Trying to Understand Obamacare Ruling?
Sharon Patch's law columnist summarizes this big issue.
A heavily divided United States Supreme Court ruled today that the key provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") – the so-called "individual mandate" that all persons obtain coverage or pay a fine for failing to do so - is constitutional. Absent repeal by Congress, Obamacare is now the law of the land. The Court published nearly a dozen different opinions today, all of which can be found in PDF form at the Court's website. They total almost one hundred pages in length. This column offers a very quick summary of the big issue – whether Congress can impose the individual mandate. In a somewhat unusual "introductory passage," Chief Justice Roberts is careful to frame the issue as whether "Congress has the power…
