The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which is commonly referred to as Obamacare.

Politicians, policy advocates, attorneys and scholars are weighing in on the ruling today.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said, “I continue to oppose ObamaCare. One of my first acts as Governor was to authorize Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to add Wisconsin to the federal lawsuit opposing ObamaCare. Wisconsin will not take any action to implement ObamaCare. I am hopeful that political changes in Washington, D.C. later this year ultimately end the implementation of this law at the federal level. If there is no political remedy from Washington and the law moves forward, it would require the majority of people in Wisconsin to pay more money for less health care. Additionally, it would increase the size and cost of government, decrease the quality of healthcare and, in our state, reduce access for those truly in need of assistance. The federal government should not tell individuals and families what to do with healthcare. The alternative is more transparency and a more active role by consumers, so we can truly control costs.”

Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, said, “This historic ruling is a major step towards establishing the freedom of every American to make their own health care decisions. We are one step closer to every American having the peace of mind of knowing that health care will be there when they need it. The court’s decision is a particular relief to nearly one million Wisconsinites who have preexisting conditions who will face outrageous discrimination if they ever have to buy insurance on their own. Now that a conservative Supreme Court has affirmed the constitutionality of the health care law, we believe that Governor Walker has a moral obligation to restart the implementation process here in Wisconsin. We call on Walker to stop playing politics with people’s lives.”

Rick Esenberg, president of Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and adjunct professor of law at Marquette University Law School, said the reasoning for the Supreme Court’s decision was surprising because most observers expected the decision would be made based on Congress’ ability to regulate interstate commerce rather than as a function of Congress’ taxing power. “I believe that our Constitutional scheme has given only limited powers to Congress and that if Congress can impose a penalty on you, if Congress can attempt to mandate that you do something then it’s hard to see what limitations on the authority exist other than those we might find in the Bill of Rights,” Esenberg said.

Ed Fallone, associate professor of law at Marquette University Law School, said, “I am very gratified that the court upheld the law. I think the arguments in favor of its Constitution were overwhelming. I’m only disappointed that it was upheld on the taxing power theory as opposed to the commerce clause theory.”

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce president and CEO Kurt Bauer said, “The fact that a divided court upheld the constitutionality of the health care law does not make it good public policy. As Chief Justice Roberts noted in his decision, Congress, not the Supreme Court, made the policy choices under the Constitution and hopefully lawmakers will have the good sense to repeal this misguided law. The so-called Affordable Health Care Act will actually drive up the cost of health care, and in the absence of massive tax increases is likely to bankrupt the federal government. The uncertainty that businesses of all sizes feel continues with today’s decision and will be a drag on economic growth.” U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said, “Today’s Obamacare decision establishes that there is no area of Americans’ private lives that is off limits to federal intrusion and control. Freedom took a real body blow. It is now up to Congress and hopefully a new President to repeal this unpopular monstrosity and replace it with free market reforms that will actually improve the quality and restrain the cost of health care in America.”

Moveon.org political action executive director Justin Ruben said, “Today, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the health of this nation. MoveOn members fought hard for the Affordable Care Act, and today’s decision means millions of Americans including many MoveOn members will be able to access affordable, quality health care. Today, justice was upheld. But the fact that the Affordable Care Act was ever in jeopardy shows how politicized this court has become. All too often, this 1 percent court has legislated from the bench on behalf of corporations and the wealthy instead of acting as fair arbiters of the law. The next president will nominate as many as three new justices, setting the court’s direction for a generation. There’s every reason to believe Mitt Romney would try to put more 1 percent justices on the court. MoveOn will dedicate our energy and resources to reelecting President Obama to ensure more fair-minded justices are seated on the court.”

Judd Legum, editor in chief for Think Progress and vice president for communications for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said, “This is a victory for millions of Americans who are already benefiting from the health reform law and the tens of millions who will benefit in the future but the fight is not yet over. Now that health care reform has been declared undeniably constitutional, its enemies will attack it in every other way they can. If they succeed more people will get sick, will die, and will go bankrupt because of a broken health care system. Health care is a basic human right. The Supreme Court knows this and saw the challenge to Obamacare for what it was an extreme, partisan attack on the health and well-being of American families. We cannot go back to the days where families lose their homes or go bankrupt trying to save their loved one’s lives, where cancer patients scramble to cover out-of-pocket costs to continue treatment, and when being a woman is considered a pre-exisiting condition.”

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said, “The federal government is tasked with protecting our cherished liberties not infringing upon them with mandates and intrusions into our lives. Today’s ruling affirms another broken promise by President Obama, who misled the American people in selling the law by insisting that the federal mandate was not a tax. Despite today’s disappointing decision on the law’s constitutionality, there is no question that the law remains terrible policy. It is bad news for individuals, whose personal health care decisions are threatened by greater government control. It is bad news for workers, whose paychecks and jobs are threatened by the hundreds of billions of dollars of new tax hikes and crippling uncertainty from the massive law. It is bad news for seniors, whose health security is threatened by the bureaucratic restrictions to access from the law’s changes to Medicare. It is bad news for future generations, whose prospects for greater opportunity are stifled by the trillions of dollars of new debt that will result from this law. It is incumbent upon citizens and their elected leaders to clear this partisan roadblock with full repeal, and advance common-sense, patient-centered solutions. We can still ensure universal access to quality, affordable health coverage without a budget-busting federal government power grab. I remain committed to advancing reforms that realign incentives so that individuals and their doctors not government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats are the nucleus of our health care system. This requires reforms to equalize the tax treatment of health insurance, invite true choice and competition, and ensure critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid can deliver on their promise in the 21st century. “Today’s decision strengthens the case for repeal and replace. With the right leadership in place, I am confident we can advance real health care solutions for the American people. It is now in the hands of the American people to determine whether this disastrous law will stand.”

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