Supreme Court rejects GOP challenge to Obamacare, saving health care law

Washington — The Supreme Court on Thursday tossed out a closely watched legal battle targeting the Affordable Care Act, rescuing the landmark health care law from the latest efforts by Republican-led states to dismantle it.

The court ruled 7-2 that the red states and two individuals who brought the dispute do not have the legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of the law's individual mandate to buy health insurance and ordered the case to be dismissed. Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented. Justice Stephen Breyer delivered the majority opinion for the court. The Supreme Court did not address the constitutionality of Obamacare's individual mandate or whether it can be separated from the remainder of the law, the other two issues raised by the states.