Nancy Pelosi To Ted Kennedy's Widow: 'Now, Teddy Can Rest'

Millions of Americans have reason to rejoice after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama's signature health care law on Thursday.

But the ruling also had a special meaning for the family of the late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy (D).

Kennedy, who died in 2009, spent much of his career fighting for universal health care, which he called the "cause of his life" in an essay in the Daily Beast.

"Quality care shouldn't depend on your financial resources, or the type of job you have, or the medical condition you face," he wrote. "Every American should be able to get the same treatment that U.S. senators are entitled to."

He passed away before seeing Obama's Affordable Care Act signed into law.

Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) apparently thought of Kennedy right after the ruling, and called his widow, Vicki Kennedy.

According to an aide, the House Minority Leader reached Kennedy and said "Now, Teddy can rest."

Vicki Kennedy weighed in on the Supreme Court decision in a statement.

“We still have much work to do to implement the law, and I hope we can all come together now to complete that work,” she wrote, as reported by The Boston Globe. “The stakes are too high for us to do otherwise.”

“As my late husband Senator Edward Kennedy said: ‘What we face is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country."

Below, more reactions to the Supreme Court ruling from around the political world: