There are two major theories going around about the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare:
- Roberts cleverly scored a larger victory for conservatives while granting the liberals their token victory on the issue at hand.
- Roberts was scared of what overturning the the law would do to his Court’s reputation.
The first theory would mean that all the liberal celebration needs to stop. The second would mean we have a Chief Justice who made a decision based on what people would think of him. Neither option is very good, really. But the most interesting interpretation I’ve heard is P.M. Prescott’s, which essentially states that what Roberts ruled was completely consistent with his pattern up to now.
I plan to do some more in-depth posts on the Supreme Court soon–the stuff I’ve been reading about the Court this past week is quite interesting.