‘Obamacare’ faces challenge

The US Supreme Court revived a challenge to President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms, allowing a Christian college to pursue litigation raising First Amendment objections to a law that the court mostly upheld in June.

Liberty University, based in Lynchburg, Virginia, had challenged both the individual mandate, which required all people to obtain insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty, and a separate mandate requiring large employers to provide coverage for workers.

The Supreme Court did not include Liberty’s appeal among the cases it reviewed, which led to its upholding of the individual mandate by a 5-4 vote. A day later, the court declined to review Liberty’s appeal.

But the university sought a rehearing, saying that as a federal appeals court was wrong to decide it lacked jurisdiction, its decision should be thrown out, and a new lawsuit should proceed.