Obamacare survives GOP challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on Thursday that the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, remains valid, rejecting a claim by a group of conservative states that a recent change to the law made it unconstitutional.

The law';s challengers, 18 red states led by Texas, urged the court to rule that Obamacare's requirement for nearly all Americans to obtain health insurance or pay an income tax penalty — known as the individual mandate —is unconstitutional. For that reason, they said, the entire law must be scrapped.