by Penka Arsova
LaCorte News
The Supreme Court is reportedly unlikely to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act, with two of the conservative Supreme Court Justices signaling that its key elements would survive.
The story: The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, should be invalidated. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated Tuesday that is unlikely to happen.
Roberts said that it’s not the court’s job to abolish the law because Congress had the chance and did not. He specifically pointed to the decision to remove the penalty for a mandate requiring all Americans to have health insurance coverage. The mandate is still in place but the penalty was eliminated by Congress.
“I think it’s hard for you to argue that Congress intended the entire act to fall if the mandate were struck down, when the same Congress that lowered the penalty to zero did not even try to repeal the rest of the act,” Roberts said. “I think frankly, they wanted the court to do that. But that’s not our job.”