Flood of briefs on the healthcare law's subsidies hits the Supreme Court

Liberal groups are emphasizing states' rights, a theme calculated to appeal to conservative Supreme Court justices. The insurance industry, once a foe, has come to the aid of President Obama. Conservatives are mining legislative history to discern the intent of Democrats who wrote the Affordable Care Act. And those Democrats are firing back, saying they know exactly what their intent was: to provide affordable health insurance to all Americans. Eliminating subsidies in the federal insurance exchange "would be a disaster," the American Hospital Association argues. The ranks of the uninsured would grow, it says, and "many more people will get sick, go bankrupt or die."