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Affordable Care Act survives another Supreme Court challenge
The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — in a Thursday morning ruling, retaining health care for millions of Americans.
In a 7-2 ruling in California v. Texas, a majority of the court said that Texas and a number of other Republican-controlled states did not have standing in their case to overturn former President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement. A federal judge in Texas had ruled in favor of the challenge in 2018 and struck the entire health care law as invalid, but the decision never went into effect as appeals worked their way through the system.
Without protections for pre-existing conditions provided by Obamacare, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated in 2016 that up to 52 million people could be denied coverage. Others would lose insurance if the Medicaid expansion that was adopted by dozens of states and D.C. is killed.
In an opinion authored by liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, the court concluded “that the plaintiffs in this suit failed to show a concrete, particularized injury fairly traceable to the defendants’ conduct in enforcing the specific statutory provision they attack as unconstitutional. They have failed to show that they have standing to attack as unconstitutional the Act’s minimum essential coverage provision. Therefore, we reverse the Fifth Circuit’s judgment in respect to standing, vacate the judgment, and remand the case with instructions to dismiss.”
Associate Justice Stephen Breyer sits during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/AFP via Getty Images)
The ACA had survived previous Supreme Court challenges, including in 2012 when Chief Justice John Roberts ruled with the four liberal justices to keep it in place. While this particular case was seen as weak and even called a “blunder” by the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the composition of the court had shifted right since that opinion was issued, with conservatives now holding a 6-3 majority.
The two dissents were Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, who argued that Texas did have standing. Justice Clarence Thomas, who ruled against the law in 2012, sided with the majority, as did Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who had opposed the court’s earlier ruling. In his dissent, Alito wrote that the court had pulled off an “improbable rescue” of the law.
When former President Donald Trump first took office in 2017, Republicans also held both chambers of Congress, giving them the power to overturn the law as they had campaigned on since its inception. Legislative efforts fell short and the attacks on the law actually improved its popularity, as it is now supported by a majority of Americans. One of the major issues for Republicans is they have never been able to put forth a suitable replacement that wouldn’t cost millions of people their health care coverage, with Trump’s promise that he was set to unveil a perfect plan that took care of everybody for a low price never fulfilled.
“Now, I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject,” Trump said in February 2017. “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.”
When Republicans passed their tax overhaul later in 2017, they included a repeal of the individual mandate, the penalty that required anyone who didn’t have health care to pay a fine to the government. The argument from the Republican states that was also supported by the Trump White House in a filing last year is that the law could not exist without that mandate.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the National Governors Association meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House February 27, 2017 Washington, DC. (Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty Images)
“No further analysis is necessary; once the individual mandate and the guaranteed-issue and community-rating provisions are invalidated, the remainder of the ACA cannot survive,” wrote Solicitor General Noel Francisco last summer.
A number of Democratic states, led by California, rallied in support of the law.
“For over a decade, the ACA has been the law of the land, and today’s decision solidifies those protections for generations to come,” tweeted New York state attorney general Letitia James following the ruling. “We will always fight to defend access to the affordable health coverage Americans depend on.”
- Bizarre Epstein files reference to Trump, Putin, and oral sex with ‘Bubba’ draws scrutiny in Congress - November 14, 2025
- USDA head says ‘everyone’ on SNAP will now have to reapply - November 14, 2025
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News
Bizarre Epstein files reference to Trump, Putin, and oral sex with ‘Bubba’ draws scrutiny in Congress
The latest tranche of emails from the estate of late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein includes one that contains what appear to be references to President Donald Trump allegedly performing oral sex, raising questions the committee cannot answer until the Department of Justice turns over records it has withheld, says U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
Garcia insists the Trump White House is helping block them.
In a Friday afternoon interview with The Advocate, the out California lawmaker responded to a 2018 exchange, which was included in the emails released, between Jeffrey Epstein and his brother, Mark Epstein. In that message, Mark wrote that because Jeffrey Epstein had said he was with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, he should “ask him if Putin has the photos of Trump blowing Bubba.”
“Bubba” is a nickname former President Bill Clinton has been known by; however, the email does not clarify who Mark Epstein meant, and the context remains unclear.
- Bizarre Epstein files reference to Trump, Putin, and oral sex with ‘Bubba’ draws scrutiny in Congress - November 14, 2025
- USDA head says ‘everyone’ on SNAP will now have to reapply - November 14, 2025
- Trump orders Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Clinton and other political foes - November 14, 2025
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Thursday said the Trump administration is planning to have all Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries reapply for the program due to alleged fraud.
The secretary said after receiving data on SNAP recipients from 29 red states that “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check.”
“Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue state data what we’re going to find?” she asked during a Thursday appearance on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”
“It’s going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable, and they can’t survive without it,” she added.
Every state has a periodic recertification process that requires SNAP or food stamp recipients to update their whereabouts and earnings, according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Most municipalities require updated data every six to 12 months.
“Secretary Rollins wants to ensure the fraud, waste, and incessant abuse of SNAP ends,” a USDA spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “Rates of fraud were only previously assumed, and President Trump is doing something about it. Using standard recertification processes for households is a part of that work. As well as ongoing analysis of State data, further regulatory work, and improved collaboration with States. “
Earlier this month, food stamps were threatened amid the government shutdown as the Trump administration argued against using contingency funds to fuel the welfare program.
- Bizarre Epstein files reference to Trump, Putin, and oral sex with ‘Bubba’ draws scrutiny in Congress - November 14, 2025
- USDA head says ‘everyone’ on SNAP will now have to reapply - November 14, 2025
- Trump orders Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Clinton and other political foes - November 14, 2025
NEW YORK (AP) — Acceding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton.
Bondi posted on X that she was assigning Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the probe, capping an eventful week in which congressional Republicans released nearly 23,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate and House Democrats seized on emails mentioning Trump.
Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, didn’t explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men he mentioned in a social media post demanding the probe has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein’s victims.
Hours before Bondi’s announcement, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would ask her, the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.
Trump, calling the matter “the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans,” said the investigation should also include financial giant JPMorgan Chase, which provided banking services to Epstein, and “many other people and institutions.”
“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” the Republican president wrote, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 election victory over Bill Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Asked later Friday whether he should be ordering up such investigations, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I’m the chief law enforcement officer of the country. I’m allowed to do it.”
In a July memo regarding the Epstein investigation, the FBI said, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
The president’s demand for an investigation — and Bondi’s quick acquiescence — is the latest example of the erosion of the Justice Department’s traditional independence from the White House since Trump took office.
It is also an extraordinary attempt at deflection. For decades, Trump himself has been scrutinized for his closeness to Epstein — though like the people he now wants investigated, he has not been accused of sexual misconduct by Epstein’s victims.
None of Trump’s proposed targets were accused of sex crimes
- Bizarre Epstein files reference to Trump, Putin, and oral sex with ‘Bubba’ draws scrutiny in Congress - November 14, 2025
- USDA head says ‘everyone’ on SNAP will now have to reapply - November 14, 2025
- Trump orders Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Clinton and other political foes - November 14, 2025
Bizarre Epstein files reference to Trump, Putin, and oral sex with ‘Bubba’ draws scrutiny in Congress
USDA head says ‘everyone’ on SNAP will now have to reapply
Trump orders Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Clinton and other political foes
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