Supreme Court dismisses challenge to Affordable Care Act leaving it in place

The Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the Affordable Care Act on Thursday in a decision that will leave the law intact and save health care coverage for millions of Americans. The justices turned away a challenge from Republican-led states and the former Trump administration, which urged the justices to block the entire law.

The justices said that the challengers of the 2010 law did not have the legal right to bring the case.

Justice Stephen Breyer penned the decision that was 7-2. Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

The court's ruling comes as President Joe Biden -- a firm supporter of the law that was passed while he served as President Barack Obama's vice president -- has expressed strong support for the law.

The justices noted that there is no harm to opponents from the provisions that they are challenging because Congress has reduced the penalty for failing to buy health insurance to zero.

"For these reasons, we conclude that the plaintiffs in this suit failed to show a concrete, particularized injury fairly traceable to the defendants' conduct in enforcing the specific statutory provision they attack as unconstitutional," Breyer wrote. "They have failed to show that they have standing to attack as unconstitutional the Act's minimum essential coverage provision."

The ruling means that the justices won't rule on the merits of the lawsuit, which was the third time they've been asked to consider a significant challenge to the law, but instead they will allow the law to stand.