I just read the article at http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/06/28/Did-Roberts-Give-in-to-Obama-Bullying . It says that the dissenting opinion refers to a DIFFERENT opinion as the dissenting opinion and uses the term “we”, which is typically used for the majority opinion. This suggests that Kennedy’s opinion was supposed to be the majority opinion.
The article suggests that Roberts changed his vote at the last minute - they suggest because of the media “bullying” here toward the end. They talk about the thin reasoning, which is not characteristic of Roberts - as if he had no time to come up with excuses for his decision. There is also a video at the bottom of that link; I can’t see the video but it claims that Justice Kennedy was visibly angry about the decision.
Somebody had mentioned also that the opinions are read in order of the seniority of the justice who wrote the majority opinion. I don’t know exactly how the reading of the decisions went today, but I wonder if Obamacare being last would reflect a majority opinion written by Kennedy rather than by Roberts. Were the decisions in order so that the last decision was read by the most senior (that is, longest-standing) justice? Did Kagan or Sotomayor write the majority opinion for Stolen Valor? If not, then somebody more senior than Roberts read before he did, which is out of order.
I think playing a part was some latent psychological urge in Roberts' psyche to "become someone apart" in his midlife........which caused him to abruptly, impulsively switch at the last minute from his comfortable, publicly-perceived conservative persona......and hook on to the alluring bait of the leftist associate justices like a young carp going after a dough ball.
Leni