King v. Burwell

King v. Burwell
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 4, 2015 Decided June 25, 2015
Full case name	David King, et al., Petitioners v. Sylvia Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al.
Docket no.	14-114
Citations	576 U.S. 473 (more) 135 S. Ct. 2480; 192 L. Ed. 2d 483
Argument	Oral argument
Opinion announcement	Opinion announcement
Case history
Prior	King v. Sebelius, 997 F. Supp. 2d 415 (E.D. Va. 2014); affirmed sub. nom., King v. Burwell, 759 F.3d 358 (4th Cir. 2014); cert. granted, 135 S. Ct. 475 (2014).
Holding
Section 36B of the ACA provides for subsidies under both federally run and state-run exchanges. The wording "...established by the State" was superfluous when read within "the broader structure of the Act".
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito Sonia Sotomayor · Elena Kagan
Case opinions
Majority	Roberts, joined by Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan
Dissent	Scalia, joined by Thomas, Alito
Laws applied
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

King v. Burwell, 576 U.S. 473 (2015), was a 6–3 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States interpreting provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Court's decision upheld, as consistent with the statute, the outlay of premium tax credits to qualifying persons in all states, both those with exchanges established directly by a state, and those otherwise established by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The petitioners had argued that the plain language of the statute provided eligibility for tax credits only to those persons in states with state-operated exchanges. The Court found the plaintiffs' interpretation to be "the most natural reading of the pertinent statutory phrase."^[1] Nevertheless, the Court found the statute as a whole to be ambiguous, and that "the pertinent statutory phrase" ought to be interpreted in a manner "that is compatible with the rest of the law." The majority opinion stated: "Congress made the guaranteed issue and community rating requirements applicable in every State in the Nation. But those requirements only work when combined with the coverage requirement and tax credits. So it stands to reason that Congress meant for those provisions to apply in every State as well."^[1]