—I watch the Dems and they been repeatly warning Roberts to not side with Scalia, Thomas and Alito and it looks like Roberts found his horse’s head in his bed.—
I honestly believe that is what happened here.
I am still shocked, though.
Long ago I read Borks book ‘The Tempting of America’ on court decisions and he explained how if you side with the progressive justices you get heaps of media praise and party invitations, otherwise you get scorn and ridicule.
MSNBC, Obama, congression Dems, etc have been on TV DAILY specifically warning Roberts not to side with the conservative three, especially if it will lead to 5 to 4 decisions.
There are decades of New Deal precedents since FDR that are somewhat consistent with this watered down ‘tax/fine’ ‘mandate’ approach, so I didnt have my hopes up regardless of Republican hype.
Let me shock you, I bet Romney and Boehner secretly wanted the whole bill upheld for purely political reasons. They were scared it would be overturned and the spotlight might point at them.
All the predictions here in comments that the whole bill would be thrown out was massive wishful thinking, it was always down to a single justice, and I swore off wishful thinking in GWB second term.