Washington: The US Supreme Court on Thursday (June 17) upheld the ObamaCare, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA) against the latest Republican challenge, allowing millions to keep their health insurance coverage amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In a 7-2 decision, the nation`s highest court ruled that the GOP challengers lacked standing to sue, in a decision that marks the third major challenge to ObamaCare, to be rebuffed by the Supreme Court in roughly a decade, thus preserving the landmark law and its key protections for millions of people with preexisting health conditions. The case arose after 18 Republican states brought a legal challenge in 2018 aimed at striking down the ACA. Led by Texas, the Grand Old Party (GOP) challengers focused on the ObamaCare tax penalty meant to induce the purchase of health insurance by most Americans. They argued that former President Trump`s 2017 tax cut, which zeroed out the penalty, made that provision unconstitutional. Without the tax penalty, they argued, ObamaCare effectively lost its constitutional footing, requiring its invalidation by the court. But the justices did not even address those issues in their decision. “We do not reach these questions of the Act`s validity, however, for Texas and the other…