Norton Says Supreme Court’s Ruling in Favor of Affordable Care Act Explicitly Rebuts Major Arguments of Congressional Opponents

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released the following statement as opponents of the Affordable Care Act met defeat in their second challenge to the law in today's 6-3 Supreme Court decision in King v. Burwell.

"The reasoning of the Court's decision today upholding the Affordable Care Act should be particularly instructive to Members of Congress who have opposed the law. The Court said that the view of the opponents was inconsistent with the statute when viewed as a whole, and that their interpretation ‘could well push a State's individual insurance marketplace into a death spiral.' Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his opinion for the Court that ‘Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them.' Perhaps our Republican opponents, who have tried to repeal the Act 60 times, will take note that the Court avoided the interpretation that would have destroyed health care markets, the same outcome that would have resulted from their attempted repeals."