Of course it was. In the "reasoning" which finds the mandate a "tax" he also finds the Court blameless in violating the AIA because Congress didn't believe it to be a tax. That means Congress didn't have to follow the Constitutional process for taxation either.
And by the way, if you've actually read the opinion, you know that the dissent completely destroys the claim that this is a tax, and lists several precedents in nearly identical cases where the court struck down a penalty masquerading as a tax, and finds moreover that "this COURT HAS NEVER BEFORE FOUND A PENALTY TO BE A TAX."
Roberts' opinion is best described in the derisive words of Wolfgang Pauli: "Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!" It is so thoroughly stupid, so wrong on so many levels, so full of logical holes, so internally inconsistent, that "it is not only not correct, IT IS NOT EVEN WRONG." It does not even rise to the level of being wrong.
This opinion is the Dred Scott decision of the 21st Century.
Yours is one of the most informed, apt, and cogent posts I’ve seen on this important subject.
Kinduv like the microbes that feed on the bacteria of the slime under the scum beneath the filth of the refuse in the trench going into the sewer?
(That Wolfgang Pauli was such a hoot, chock full of knee-slappers. Not even wrong...hee hee hee)