Justice Scalia is pissed off that his fellow Supreme Court Justices didn’t join him in trying to destroy the American healthcare system. In their most recent decision, King v. Burwell, the Supreme Court decided to keep the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in tact.
The case hinged on the interpretation of a particular phrase in the legislation that the plaintiff argued prevented the extension of tax credits to participants who bought their insurance from exchanges that were established by the federal, rather than state, government.
“You would think the answer would be obvious–so obvious that there would hardly be a need for the Supreme Court to hear a case about it,” said Scalia.
“Under all the usual rules of interpretation, in short, the Government should lose this case. But normal rules of interpretation seem always to yield to the overriding principle of the present Court: The Affordable Care Act must be saved,” Scalia complained.
In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts defended the Affordable Care Act by saying that the intention of the congress was clear: congress did not intend to tear apart the health care system, congress meant to improve the health care system.
“Today’s interpretation is not merely unnatural; it is unheard of. Who would ever have dreamt that ‘Exchange established by the State’ means ‘Exchange established by the State of the Federal Government’?” said Scalia. “Little short of an express statutory definition could justify adopting this singular reading.”
