Did ObamaCare Just Die?

Posted on Comments

This seems to be the consensus interpretation of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision this morning:

Court Rules That Subsidies in Obamacare’s
Federal Exchange are Illegal, Dealing
Huge Legal Blow to Health Law
— Reason

In Blow to Health Law, Appeals Court Limits Subsidies
— New York Times

BREAKING: Two Republican Judges
Order Obamacare Defunded
— Think Progress

Court’s Decision Strikes Huge
Blow to Pro-Abortion Obamacare
— LifeNews

So, whether they are liberals or conservatives, for or against ObamaCare, everybody seems to agree that this decision bodes ill for the program’s continuation. That’s good news for America.

 

21 comments

  1. Let’s hope so. They are going to do the D.C. Circuit first (hoping his appointments muddy the waters some more) and then our hopes rest with John Roberts. What could go wrong there?

  5. Um, no. There are 35 district courts in DC, and pretty much all of the run by democrats. The government is taking the case to all of them. The obviously partisan GOP court that made this decision decided it on semantics.

  6. King Zer0 wants enbanc hearing. Doesn’t mean he will get it. If not, then there is a split and SCOTUS will be more inclined to hear it themselves.

  7. That would be interesting, if not exactly unexpected.

    However, if I were them, I’d be a little less than exuberant about SCOTUS allowing the federal subsidies. It is a matter of course that they won’t be in control forever. The GOP is probably inventive enough to make some hay with that sort of precedent. Not that the Dems are thinking remotely that far ahead.

  8. The core of the law is semantics. What the DimoKKKraps are hoping is to get it decided on some other basis. The plain reading of the law does not permit the subsidies with Federal Exchanges. Either words mean something, or there is no need for law. Just do what you want – just like Zer0 is trying to do.

  9. I suppose the administration will appeal the decision to perhaps to an en banc panel of the DC Circuit and certainly to the Supreme Court.

    I don’t know if the judges actually issued an injunction against paying the subsidies or a stay of their decision.

    But I strongly suspect that Obama would defy the court regardless. It’s of a piece with his lawless tyranny.

  10. No matter what the Supremes must take the case. But yes, the split between the circuits nearly guaranties the grant of certiorari.

  11. The Fourth Circuit opinion involves lots of angst of Congressional intent and rather unconvincing statutory interpretation. However, it was a unanimous decision.

  13. The partisan Democrat appointees in Virginia essentially said the words don’t matter, the meaning can be read from the “context.”

    Any honest reading of the context shows the intent was for ONLY state-run exchanges to get subsidies. It is specified in several places, as is the definition of what is a “state exchange.”

    It is the Democrats who are making stuff up out of whole cloth.

  14. Ironic that you guys are up in arms about poor women volunteering for sterilization or getting free birth control on the grounds that it’s both genocide and the women are immoral monsters who just want to screw but are a-ok with a few million people who receive subsidies for insurance getting dropped which could kill them. It’s true what they say about conservatives: the pre-born are sacred, and worshipped, but after that it’s screw you, you’re on your own

  15. As I wrote over at Protein Wisdom:

    This ruling means jack, no matter what.

    That entity known as The United States Of America is gone — finished, overthrown, discarded.

    The Rule Of Law is gone, replaced by The Rule Of Whim. We are living in a post-Constitutional Despotic State.

    The Jarrett Junto will do whatever it wants, no matter how the CoA rules or if it reaches the SCOTUS and they hand down an opinion.

    The Legislative Branch of this Despotic State will not resist Caesar, being as it is filled with Courtiers and sniveling Quislings.

    This is just another scene in a very tragic farce.

  18. Let me explain “semantics” to you, sport:
    – one interpretation subsidizes the federal exchanges.
    – the other interpretation doesn’t.
    – the difference between these interpretations will run into the TENS OR HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
    So apparently, the meaning of words matter quite a lot.

  20. Exactly. The context supports the text.
    This tactic is being used to neuter criticism, as most of the right considers themselves “originalists.”
    Here is the left, again, coopting and PERVERTING the meaning of words.

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