Obama health care reform is upheld by Supreme Court: Live 16.05: In the last few weeks the US has become a nation of Supreme Court anoraks, endlessly debating what the eyebrow twitches of Justice Kennedy meant and working out fantasy breakdowns for how the justices might rule. Here's the breakdown as it was announced in real life just over an hour ago: Majority opinion: upholding the law • Chief Justice Roberts - Bush Jr. appointee • Justice Sotomayor - Obama appointee • Justice Ginsberg - Clinton appointee • Justice Breyer - Clinton appointee • Justice Kagan - Obama appointee Minority opinion: against upholding the law • Justice Kenendy - Reagan appointee • Justice Thomas - Bush Snr. appointee • Justice Alito - Bush Jr. appointee • Justice Scalia - Regan appointee 15.56: And here's the non plain-English version. The full text of the Supreme Court's ruling on National Federation of Independent Businesses, et al v Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al: Supreme Court Decision On Affordable Care Act 15.52: Harry Reid, the Democrat Senate Majority Leader, has taken to the floor of the Senate to express as much joy as his little grey frame is capable of. Passing the Affordable Care Act was the greatest single step in a generation in ensuring affordable care for all Americans... Our Supreme Court has spoken. The matter is settled... 15.45: The indispensable Scotus Blog offers this plain-English summary of what just happened: The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn't comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding. 15:40: Here's an irony of political history: Senators Biden and Obama both voted against the confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts in 2005. Obama told the Senate that he didn't trust Roberts in those "five per cent of cases that are truly difficult." 15.36: Obama is due to speak from the White House within the next few hours but the Democratic crowing is beginning: 15:30: Justice Kennedy actually wrote the dissenting opinion for the conservatives arguing that the entire law should be struck down, my colleague Charlie Whitfield reports. In opening his statement in dissent, Kennedy says: "In our view, the entire Act before us is invalid in its entirety." Kennedy, thought to be the potential swing vote and the least right-wing of the 5-justice conservative bloc, has instead written the most conservative dissent possible President Obama's political legacy has been rescued by the one vote of Chief Justice Roberts. 15.27: Not that the Chief Justice is wild about the law. He notes pointedly in his opinion: "The court does not express any opinion on the wisdom of the [Affordable Care Act]" 15.22: Chief Justice John Roberts, a man appointed to America's high court by George W Bush, has voted to save Obama's healthcare plan. He joined in with the court's four more liberal justices to uphold the law. Justice Kennedy, the man who everyone thought would cast the deciding vote, is in the minority. 15.20: The word is filtering down to the crowds in front of the Supreme Court and the pro-Obama crowd are beginning to burst into uncertain cheers. 15.16: Here's the first verdict from Scotus Blog, the entire law is still standing except for a technical clause about the federal government's relationship with the states over Medicaid: The bottom line: the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government's power to terminate states' Medicaid funds is narrowly read. 15.15: This is very complicated and still unfolding but it sounds like the Supreme Court has ruled that the individual mandate is a tax, and the government has the right to levy taxes. 15.10: BREAKING: Scotus Blog, the definitive DC legal blog, is reporting that the mandate has been upheld and that Chief Justice Roberts has joined the liberal wing of the court. 15.08 The verdict is due a day after Mr Obama received a timely poll boost as two new polls showed him pulling ahead of Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger, in the key battleground states that will decide November's general election: Despite a turbulent month for Mr Obama, battered by disappointing jobs numbers and a high-profile Republican by-election victory in Wisconsin, the president was found to have established an eight-point lead in 12 key swing states, according to a poll by NBC and The Wall Street Journal. The numbers, which were supported by the results of a Quinnipiac University poll, make grim reading for Mr Romney and contradict a widespread perception among political pundits of both stripes that the former Massachusetts governor had been gaining ground on Mr Obama. 15.05 Reports that Mr Obama will address the nation later today, after the verdict. 15.04 The Telegraph's US Editor Peter Foster writes: President Obama, sitting in the Oval Office with Joe Biden, is facing the potential destruction of the major political achievement of his first term if the Supreme Court decides the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. The Obama legislative legacy is at stake as - Republicans will say - is the President's credibility as a leader. 15.02 Underlining the size and scope of the decision, the nine Supreme Court justices held almost six hours of oral arguments over three days in late March, the longest time allotted to a single issue in more than 45 years. Paul Clement, who argued the case on behalf of the law's challengers, told reporters last week: More people have paid attention to this case than any other case in recent memory, probably with the exception of Bush v Gore. 15.00 GMT (10.00 EDT) Hello and welcome to our live rolling coverage as Barack Obama faces two key verdicts: whether his landmark health care bill violated the constitution and whether his attorney general was in contempt of Congress over the 'Fast and Furious' scandal.