'The Affordable Care Act is here to stay,' declares Obama after Supreme Court sides with him and rules insurance subsidies can go to everyone – ignoring language of the Obamacare law

• Congress wrote that health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act could only go to Americans who bought insurance on exchanges 'established by the state'
• But 34 states opted not to create those marketplaces, letting the federal government run their shopping portal instead
• The Supreme Court decided in a 6-3 ruling that Congress intended to cover everyone equally even though the language of the law said otherwise
• Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent snarks: 'We should start calling this law SCOTUScare' instead of Obamacare
• The president told critics he would not 'unravel what has now been woven into the fabric of America'
• 'My greatest hope is that rather than keep refighting battles that have been settled again and again and again,' he said
• Republicans indicated in statement after statement that they had no intention of heeding the president's request

By David Martosko, US Political Editor and Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent For Dailymail.com and Ap

Published: 09:21 EST, 25 June 2015 | Updated: 16:29 EST, 25 June 2015

The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with the White House on a hotly contested and closely watched Obamacare case, ruling 6-3 that the Affordable Care Act authorizes insurance subsidy payments to Americans regardless of where they purchase their plans.

America's highest-ranking justices determined that despite language in the law restricting subsidies only to people shopping for insurance through marketplaces 'established by the state,' people in states that didn't set up their own exchanges – the 34 that opted to have the federal government manage their affairs – can still collect.

'In this instance, the context and structure of the Act compel us to depart from what would otherwise be the most natural reading of the pertinent statutory phrase,' the court ruled in a majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts.

The ruling was a critical victory for President Barack Obama, whose legacy hinged on the court upholding the law he shepherded through Congress during his first term at the White House.

'After multiple challenges to this law before the Supreme Court, the Affordable Court Act is here to stay,' he declared from the Rose Garden of the White House this morning, decrying what he called a 'partisan' push to undercut the law and strip millions of American of their health insurance plans.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO 

BIG WIN: President Obama is pictured with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough after the Supreme Court announced its ruling on Thursday

HUGS ALL AROUND: Obama hugged Deputy White House Chief of Staff Kristie Canegallo as Vice President Biden hugged chief of staff Denis McDonough after they heard aboutthe 6-3 decision

VICTORY: Supporters of the Affordable Care Act cheered outside the Supreme Court in Washington after the justices ruled that Obamacare tax credits can go to residents of any state

TESTY: Justice Antonin Scalia (left) snapped in a dissenting opinion that the Supreme Court has begun to play favorites with certain laws, while Chief Justice John Roberts (right) wrote the majority opinion upholding Obamacare's subsidy plan

The massive win for the Obama administration is the second Supreme Court victory related to the healthcare reform laws since it passed along party lines in 2010.

A dissenting opinion written by the conservative Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent snarked that '[w]e should start calling this law SCOTUScare.'

SCOTUS is an acronym for Supreme Court of the United States.

The court sided with government lawyers who argued that despite the plain text of the law, Congress intended to cover everyone equally.

'If the statutory language is plain, the Court must enforce it according to its terms,' Roberts wrote.

'But oftentimes the meaning – or ambiguity – of certain words or phrases may only become evident when placed in context.'

'Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them,' Roberts wrote. 'If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter.'

The contentious four words that inspired the case 'can fairly be read consistent with what we see as Congress's plan, and that is the reading we adopt,' he concluded. 

Several sections of the Affordable Care Act indicate that consumers can claim tax credits no matter where they live. 

No member of Congress said subsidies would be limited, and several states said in a separate brief to the court that they had no inkling they had to set up their own exchange for their residents to get tax credits.

But Jonathan Gruber, the MIT economist who provided the statistical model the law was based on, said on several occasions that the law was written in a way that states would have to launch insurance exchanges in order to secure subsidies for their citizens. 

Obama says landmark healthcare law is 'here to stay'

BOOYAH: President Barack Obama took a victory lap after his signature health insurance law was upheld by the Supreme Court. 'The Affordable Care Act is here to stay,' he declared from the Rose Garden of the White House this morning

'JUBILANT': Democrats on Capitol HIll including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (center) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (at podium) also took victory laps on Thursday

Obama said the favorable decision proved once and for all that healthcare 'is not a privilege for a few, but a right for all' - a sentiment Democratic lawmaker echoed in their own statements.

'Today is a victory for hard-working Americans all across this country,' the president said.

Since the law took effect, 16 million uninsured Americans have signed up for medical insurance, or one in three Americans who did not have health insurance previously. That includes the 8.7 million people who are receiving an average subsidy of $272 per month to help pay their insurance premiums. 

'WORDS NO LONGER HAVE MEANING': Justice Scalia's scathing dissent

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, representing the conservative wing of the court, penned an unusually aggressive opinion. Below are some of his most noteworthy lines:

• 'Words no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by a State is "established by the State".'
• 'We should start calling this law SCOTUScare … The Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites.'
• '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.'
• 'The Court’s decision reflects the philosophy that judges should endure whatever interpretive distortions it takes in order to correct a supposed flaw in the statutory machinery.'
• 'The Court forgets that ours is a government of laws and not of men. That means we are governed by the terms of our laws, not by the unenacted will of our lawmakers.'

'That is something we can all be proud of,' Obama said of the declining rate of the uninsured, proclaiming minutes later. 'This law is working.'

Five years in, it's time to stop treating Obamacare as legislation under debate or 'as a political football,' he said. 'This is healthcare in America.'

'We’ve got more work to do. But what we’re not going to do is unravel what has now been woven into the fabric of America,' he said, putting the law's critics on notice. 

'And my greatest hope is that rather than keep refighting battles that have been settled again and again and again, I can work with Republicans and Democrats to move forward. Let’s join together, make health care in America even better.'

Concluding his remarks, Obama said that 'this was a good day for America.'

He turned to Vice President Joe Biden, standing just behind him and to his left, and shook his hand as the White House staff gathered in the Rose Garden broke out into applause.

The two men promptly walked back into the Oval Office together, Obama's hand resting on his lieutenant's back, ignoring questions being hurled at them by the press.

Before the president had even taken the podium, the Republican Party fired a broadside at the White House, calling Obamacare a 'reckless law' and noting that no lawmakers in the GOP voted for its passage. 

Orrin Hatch, the Senate's most senior lawmaker, argued that the decision 'allows the Obama Administration simply to ignore the law and to implement its own preferred policy instead.' 

House Speaker John Boehner said, 'ObamaCare is fundamentally broken,' and 'today’s ruling doesn’t change that fact.'

Republicans 'will continue our efforts to repeal the law and replace it with patient-centered solutions that meet the needs of seniors, small business owners, and middle-class families,' he said.  

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, also said the ruling 'won't change Obamacare's spectacular flops, from humiliating website debacles to the total collapse of exchanges in states run by the law's loudest cheerleaders.'

'Today's ruling won't change the skyrocketing costs in premiums, deductibles, and co-pays that have hit the middle class so hard over the last few years,' his statement read. 

'Today is a victory for hard-working Americans all across this country,' the president said

Concluding his remarks Obama said, 'So this was a good day for America. Let’s get back to work.' He then turned to Vice President Joe Biden, who was standing just behind him and to his left, and shook his hand

NO QUESTIONS: The two men promptly walked back into the Oval Office together, Obama's hand resting on his lieutenant's back, ignoring questions being hurled at them by the press

Already, House Republicans have tried, unsuccessfully, to repeal the law more than 50 times.  

Democrats, especially in the U.S. Senate, breathed a sign of relief.

'The Supreme Court decision ensures 6.4 million people will keep their coverage; it was legally the right decision and substantively the right outcome,' New York Democratic Sen. Chuch Schumer said in a statement.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who shepherded the Affordable Care Act through the House of Representatives during her last term as speaker, opened a press conference Thursday by saying she was 'so jubilant about this. It's a victory for common sense and for all American families.'

Pelosi predicted that Republicans might still try to chip away at the law. 

'They may try this, that, or the other thing,' she said, 'but the more time goes by, the more people benefit from the Affordable Care Act and the more ridiculous they look."

Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen called on lawmakers across the aisle to 'give up their numbskull quest to try to unravel the law.'

'It’s time to look to the future. I hope we can do that,' he said during an appearance on MSNBC.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, another Democrat, said the GOP was engaged in a 'heartless effort led by health care law opponents to push families – many of whom have insurance coverage for the first time - back into the ranks of the vulnerable uninsured.' 

Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy took a more somber approach.

'Today's decision is a stark reminder of the power the Supreme Court’s justices wield over Americans' everyday lives,' he said.

'It matters greatly who serves on our Nation’s highest court.'   

Demonstrators chant 'ACA is here to stay' outside SC

NINE WISE MEN AND WOMEN: The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the White House in a 6-3 decision

The White House meanwhile took a second victory lap on Thursday afternoon during its daily briefing with reporters. 

Press Secretary Josh Earnest proclaimed that the ruling, coupled with a vote today affirming the president's trade agenda, illustrated the effectiveness of president's leadership. 

He focuses on a longer-term objective and keeps his focus there, Earnest said. 

The West Wing spokesman indicated that even White House staff who have known him since he was a senator were impressed.

'Both of these issues were aggressively pursued by the president,' he said, and he ultimately proved successful because of 'his laser-like focus' on helping the middle class. 'That is why he is so gratified today to see this progress.' 

Taunting the law's critics - and the press - he said that if the president had spent a lot of time reading the obituaries on his signature law, 'we probably wouldn't have made as much progress as we did.'

The 2012 challenge to the law took place in the midst of Obama's re-election campaign, when he touted the largest expansion of the social safety net since the advent of Medicare nearly a half-century earlier. 

But at the time, the benefits of the Affordable Care Act were mostly in the future. Many of its provisions had yet to take effect.

In 2015, the landscape has changed, although the partisan and ideological divisions remain for a law that passed Congress in 2010 with no Republican votes. 

'Obamacare has never been accepted by the American people,' Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday. 'The harm that the law inflicts shows that the people were right.'

THE RUNNING OF THE INTERNS: In a time-worn tradition, news assistants dash out of the Supreme Court with news of decisions so their bosses can broadcast them. The Supreme Court forbids cameras and recording devices on days when decisions are released

Republicans will likely run heavily in the 2016 White House race on a message of repealing the law. 

Within hours of the ruling Mike Huckabee had announced a 'Religious Liberty Town Hall Tour' of Iowa next week during which his campaign suggested he preach against the 'contentious gay marriage and health care rulings by the Supreme Court.'

'America can't bow to judicial tyranny on health care or gay marriage,' Huckabee said in an afternoon op-ed in USA Today.

The high court has not handed down judgments on the gay marriage cases it heard this spring, but is expected to do so in the next several days before it adjourns for the fall. 

After today's ruling in favor of Obamacare, however, conservatives did not appear to be holding out much hope that the pending gay marriage ruling would swing their way.

The American Conservative Union blasted Roberts - who was appointed to the judicial body by Republican president George W. Bush - and said it was today 'reminded of why it is destructive to have activists on the Supreme Court who are empowered by their hubris to act as Judge, Senator and King.'

'Chief Justice John Roberts now thinks it is his job to re-write the unambiguous language of the law to achieve a certain outcome: the radical Leftist dream of socialized medicine,' the group claimed. 

Roberts and the other justices who ruled in favor of the Obama administration 'have disgraced their office, sprayed graffiti on the Constitution, and set America on a path toward a constitutional crisis,' ACU chairman Matt Schlapp said. 

He owes conservatives and America an 'apology,' Schalpp contended, for lying about his political agenda. 

The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative, free-market based, think tank, said the ruling made clear that Obamacare cannot be defeated though a lawsuit.

'Now, it's time for Obamacare opponents and partial critics to move on to the next play. That's in the political, not the judicial, arena,' AEI legal scholar Thomas Miller said. 'Elections, and following though on campaign promises, matter.'

Republicans label Obamacare 'a reckless law' in new video

Jeb Bush, the ex-governor of Florida and a front-runner for the GOP nomination, promised in a statement that the 'decision is not the end of the fight against Obamacare.'

'As President of the United States, I would make fixing our broken health care system one of my top priorities,' Bush said. 'I will work with Congress to repeal and replace this flawed law with conservative reforms that empower consumers with more choices and control over their health care decisions.' 

The Democratic National Committee meanwhile warned its supporters not to get complacent on the issue.

'While we have a lot to celebrate today, we can't forget that the GOP has always been -- and is still, even though the Court has ruled twice that Obamacare is the law of the land -- single-mindedly focused on repealing this law that has helped so many Americans afford quality health insurance,' DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in an email. 

'They're the reason we had to take this fight to our nation's highest court in the first place, and each and every one of their candidates for president has traveled around the country promising repeal.

Schultz told them that while 'we can (and should!) take a moment to enjoy this, let's not forget that our Republican opposition just doesn't understand that this debate is over -- they're going to keep fighting to undo the progress we've made. We can't let that happen.'

Hillary Clinton, their likely nominee, said Thursday that 'anyone seeking to lead our country should stand up and support this decision.'

'Now that the Supreme Court has once again re-affirmed the ACA as the law of the land, it’s time for the Republican attacks to end,' she said. 'It’s time to move on.' 

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