So even as we anticipate the formal reversal of the DC Courts’ Halbig decision killing purchasing subsidies under the Affordable Care Act for policies bought on federal exchanges, the earlier decisions stands slightly less alone (per this report from ThinkProgress‘ Ian Millhiser):
Much of the Affordable Care Act must be defunded and millions of Americans must lose their health insurance, according to an opinion issued Tuesday by Judge Ronald A. White, an Oklahoma federal judge appointed to the bench by George W. Bush. White’s opinion reaches the same result reached by two Republican appeals court judges in a similar case, although that decision was later withdrawn by the full appeals court. To date, nine federal judges have considered this question of whether much of the law should be defunded. Only three — all of whom are Republicans — have agreed that it should be.
The partisan pattern remains worrisome for those who familiar with the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court.
