Twenty-five states challenged the constitutionality of the PPACA, and that case went to the Supreme Court for a decision. The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the constitutionality of the law.
The US government’s defense of the act argued that Congress could use the Commerce Clause to support the PPACA, but five justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, rejected that argument. Instead, Roberts and the other four justices forming the majority argued that Congress had the constitutional power to levy taxes, and thus could use the tax system to enforce the mandate for people to get health insurance. Thus, the court upheld, or approved, the PPACA as constitutional.
The constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was challenged by 26 states. Their argument was that the individual mandate was an excess of Congress' commerce clause powers, which give the government the well-known, but limited, right to regulate specific economic activity that happens between states or has a significant impact on the states collectively. This case moved from the lower courts to the Supreme Court which eventually upheld the constitutionality of the law in a 5-4 vote.
In its defense, the US government contended that Congress had the right sustain the ACA by using the Commerce Clause. However, this argument was rejected by 5 justices of the supreme court and one of the justices was Chief Justice John Roberts. The argument of the 5 justices who made up the majority was that Congress had the constitutional authority to levy taxes. Therefore, the Congress could employ the tax system to implement the health-insurance mandate. As a result, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was approved and defined by Supreme Court as constitutionally legal.
