http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/229189-court-dismisses-obamacare-challenge-from-conservative-doctors-groupBy Sarah Ferris - 01/12/15 10:50 AM EST
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a two-year-old legal challenge to a key provision of ObamaCare from a conservative doctors group.
The case, which was led by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, sought to strike down the law’s individual mandate, which fines individuals who fail to purchase health insurance.
The plaintiffs’ argument had been rejected twice before – first by a district court judge in 2012 and by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2014.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has aggressively fought ObamaCare since its passage, staging rallies around the country and filing multiple legal challenges.
The litigious group’s self-stated mission is to "fight socialized medicine and to fight the government takeover of medicine," according to its website.
The case, which was first filed in December 2012, can now be added to the graveyard of failed legal threats to ObamaCare.
Still, the group claimed a victory last fall when the Supreme Court announced it would take up a challenge to the law’s subsidies in King v. Burwell, for which the association had filed an amicus brief.
That challenge could result in 9.6 million people losing their insurance, according to a report by a nonpartisan research firm last week.
