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Justices sharply divided over health care law subsidies
Vote expected near end of June
Supreme Court Health  Ledb
This courtroom artist rendering shows Michael Carvin, lead attorney for the petitioners, speaking before the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 4, 2015. From left are, Justice Elena Kagan, and sitting behind Carvin from left are, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. The Supreme Court heard arguments in King v. Burwell, a major test of President Barack Obama's health overhaul which, if successful, could halt health care premium subsidies in all the states where the federal government runs the insurance marketplaces. - photo by Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Sharply divided along familiar lines, the Supreme Court took up a politically charged new challenge to President Barack Obama's health overhaul Wednesday in a dispute over the tax subsidies that make insurance affordable for millions of Americans. The outcome in what Justice Elena Kagan called "this never-ending saga" of Republican-led efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act appears to hinge on the votes of Chief Justice John Roberts, whose vote saved the law three years ago, and Justice Anthony Kennedy. Roberts said almost nothing in Wednesday's 85 minutes of lively back-and-forth, and Kennedy, who voted to strike down the health law in 2012, asked questions of both sides that made it hard to tell where he might come out this time.
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