Thom,

Some lessons to be learned from the ACA decision. Oral arguments are usually irrelevant. The Justices base decisions primarily on written law and precedent. The commerce clause was not the major factor in the lower courts. Roberts decision was in keeping with the Arizona decision ealier in the week where the Court held that only Congress can regulate immigration. Now, they say that Congress can, under Article I and other provisions, regulate health care if there is a national interest. Roberts decision going back to MC'culloch in 1819, was actually a conservative opinion. He found a loophole in the taxing provision but his legacy was at stake. The pundits failed to read the various decisions of the lower court. Laurence Tribe of Harvard, one of the giants in constitutional law, who taught both Obama and Roberts, predicted a 6-3 decision in favor of the ACA. I was also a classmate of Mitt Romney's in the sixties for two years. Every sentence, and I quote another, he says is a lie, including "and" and "the". Kennedy has been a Federalist in most cases but not this one.