>>> good evening. it was the most important single effort of the obama administration, and today it became the most important supreme court decision of the past several years. the court upheld the obama health care law today. it wasn't a surprise that the more liberal members of the court voted to uphold. it was a surprise that the chief justice of the court crossed over and joined them and cast in effect a deciding vote, perhaps mindful that it's called the roberts court , chief justice john roberts gave the president the victory he wanted, though it was, immediately, enveloped in politics with republicans still vowing to kill it. we have complete coverage of all of it tonight starting with our justice correspondent, pete williams , who broke the news for us on the air this morning. pete , good evening.
>> reporter: brian , it was a blockbuster decision, both in terms of what the court said and who said it. in upholding the law it was not the usual partisan split and it was not the usual swing justice, anthony kennedy , who made the difference. as a spirited crowd waited for word of the court 's most important ruling in decades, the decision came a few minutes after 10:00 a.m .
>> our country is finally on the path of sanity when it comes to health care .
>> reporter: but not everyone was elated.
>> the government is out of control.
>> reporter: the 5-4 decision upheld the law as a use of congress's power to tax. anyone who doesn't buy insurance has to pay a penalty, and the court said that amounts to a valid tax.
>> today's decision was a victory for people all over this country whose lives will be more secure because of this law and the supreme court 's decision to uphold it.
>> reporter: opponents of the law had challenged the central requirement that all americans must get health insurance . they said congress power to regulate commerce did not extend to people who chose not to buy something, that is, who don't have insurance. chief justice roberts , plus the court 's other conservatives, actually agreed that the law could not be justified as a use of the commerce power. but roberts joined the court 's liberals in upholding the law instead as a legitimate use of the congressional power to tax people who choose not to get health insurance . because the constitution permits such a tax, roberts wrote, it is not our role to forbid it or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness. the key to the decision turned out to be the chief justice, a life long conservative appointed to the court by president george w. bush .
>> the fact that a conservative republican appointed chief justice wrote today's opinion joining with the court 's more liberal members would and should give americans a lot of confidence in the decision that it's not just a political thing.
>> reporter: while opponents of the law, including 26 states , took some comfort in the court 's statement on the limits of the commerce power they were hugely disappointed the law was upheld.
>> what i think we all need to do in this country is to realize that we have awakened to a new day where an unprecedented tax has been imposed on us, literally against our will.
>> reporter: the court today also weakened a different part of the law, a punishment for states that decline to provide expanded benefits under the federal medicaid system.
>> the court was saying that the federal government cannot blackmail the states and threaten to take away all their medicaid money if they did not accept the new, expanded proposal.
>> reporter: so here is the legal bottom line. the massive health care law stands except for the medicaid punishment on the states. that means by 2014 anyone who can afford health insurance and doesn't get it will have to pay a tax. brian ?
>> pete , in plain english , basically this court is made up of five republicans and four democrats and that's why we see so many 5-4 decisions. you touched on this in your story. how extraordinary was it that this chief justice appointed by president bush crossed over in this way on this day and on this issue?
>> well, completely, because i can't think -- i don't think there's another case since john roberts has been on the court of any importance at all, perhaps any case at all, in which this was the lineup. the liberals plus the chief justice john roberts . this was his first time doing that.
>> and, pete , for the people who were trying to read the tea leaves during oral arguments when this was presented that day in court , wasn't one big factor the fact that the administration's lawyer had a pretty rough go and was fairly roughed up and people thought that didn't bode well for passage of the law?
>> that was a bright, shiny object that some people fastened on, but if you look at the comments of the justices, really, the seeds of john roberts ' agreement with the health care law were there. yes, we had some skepticism but he also made comments suggesting he was willing to uphold it as well, brian .
>> pete williams reporting for us at the end of a long day of superb, spot on reporting from the supreme
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/48004949/
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