Politics
Obamacare Decision Shows Impact of Obama’s Judges
President Obama with some of his nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in June. (Evan Vucci, AP)
WASHINGTON (USA Today) — A federal appeals court decided Thursday to reconsider a ruling that threatened to disrupt the nation’s health insurance expansion for millions of consumers.
By doing so, it illustrated what liberals have yearned for and conservatives have feared for six years: President Obama’s judges are having an impact.
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to throw out a July ruling by a Republican-dominated, three-judge panel gives the administration another chance to win the case. That would make a risky Supreme Court showdown less likely.
The new hearing is scheduled for Dec. 17. It’s critical for more than 5 million Americans in 34 states that did not set up their own health care exchanges, or online marketplaces. Federal subsidies in those states would be eliminated under the panel’s earlier decision, which was based on the precise language of the law.
