Annndddd...Now The 4th Circuit Court Of Appeals Upholds IRS ObamaCare Rule That DC Court Struck Down This Morning

Gotta try and keep up.

Breaking: 4th Circuit issues ruling on ACA insurance subsidies, sides with Obama administration. Ruling at odds w DC Circuit from this morn.

— Brent Kendall (@brkend) July 22, 2014

Unlike the DC circuit the 4th circuit is all about "context", the plain meaning of words be damned.

4th Circuit: context matters. pic.twitter.com/Mlc8SpDTea

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 22, 2014

This sheds some light on why the administration is going to seek an en banc hearing at the stacked DC circuit. One thing the Supreme Court takes into consideration when deciding to take cases is whether or not there's a split in how various circuits are treating an issue. Right now there's a split but if they go en banc at the DC circuit and the heavily Democratic full court overturns the panel's decision that eliminates the split and could give SCOTUS an out on taking this issue on.

Four justices have to vote in favor of hearing a case before the Supreme Court will hear it. You'd think the four dissenters in the National Federation of Independent Businesses case would vote to have another go at it or they (read here. "Anthony Kennedy") might take the out and avoid having to go down the path of throwing out ObamaCare now that it's been implemented.

*Note to clear something up people are confused about in the comments...these cases were filed, argued, and decided independently. It's just a coincidence the decisions were released within hours of one another.

posted by DrewM. at 12:42 PM

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