THE AMERICAN PROSPECT…The lineup of the justices shows how adept Roberts is at building alliances. On the commerce-power issue, he allied with the four conservatives. On the taxing-power issue, he added his vote to the four moderate liberals. On the Medicaid issue, he summed the four conservative votes to forbid the Medicaid expansion altogether, with his own vote and that of the two newest Justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, for the more limited “no total cutoff” rule.
Until today, some observers had suggested that this is really the Kennedy Court, dominated by the swing-voting Sphinx of Sacramento. But Kennedy today was an angry loser. It is now unquestionably the Roberts Court. He has taken the Court out of the line of fire in 2012, which underlines, for those who watch these things, how important the next election will be for the direction of constitutional doctrine.
Obama won a battle today. But Roberts is planning a long campaign, which will go on long after Obama has left office. (more)
