In King v. Burwell, a handful of citizens challenged the Healthcare Affordability Act (Obamacare). The premise of the case stemmed from the wording of a single phrase contained in the dishearteningly long statute which seemed to indicate that the government could not give tax credits to citizens of states that had their own health insurance exchanges (which would be most of the states). Everyone agreed that that was not what Congress had intended. Everyone agreed that the unfortunate wording came about in the process of amending and re-amending the proposed law. And yet, there it was, right?
There were lots of problems with this lawsuit, by the way--the most pressing of which being that most (possibly all) of the plaintiffs lacked standing, or any legally recognizable harm. But the Supremes left those issues aside and tackled the question head on.
It's a typo. Move on. Obamacare can proceed as intended. (This case was decided by a suprisingly sturdy 6-3 majority.)
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