CBS News: Roberts shifted view on constitutionality of individual mandate

CBS News reports that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. initially sided with conservatives before he changed his mind and formed an alliance with liberals to uphold most of the health care law. Other news outlets scrutinize Roberts's historic decision.

CBS: Roberts Switched Views To Uphold Health Care Law
Chief Justice John Roberts initially sided with the Supreme Court's four conservative justices to strike down the heart of President Obama's health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, but later changed his position and formed an alliance with liberals to uphold the bulk of the law, according to two sources with specific knowledge of the deliberations. Roberts then withstood a month-long, desperate campaign to bring him back to his original position, the sources said. Ironically, Justice Anthony Kennedy -- believed by many conservatives to be the justice most likely to defect and vote for the law -- led the effort to try to bring Roberts back to the fold. "He was relentless," one source said of Kennedy's efforts. "He was very engaged in this." But this time, Roberts held firm. And so the conservatives handed him their own message which, as one justice put it, essentially translated into, "You're on your own" (Crawford, 7/1).

USA Today: CBS: Roberts Switched Vote On Health Care
The decision by Chief Justice John Roberts to uphold President Obama's health care law will be studied for years -- and now details are emerging from the normally leak-proof Supreme Court itself. Jan Crawford of CBS News, citing "two sources with specific knowledge of the deliberations," reports that Roberts indeed switched his vote after siding with four other conservative justices who supported striking down the law (Jackson, 7/2).

The Hill: Report: Sources Say Roberts Switched Vote In Health Care Case
CBS News says it has confirmed that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts changed his vote in the court's landmark health care case. Legal circles have been buzzing since Thursday with speculation that Roberts might have initially sided with the court's conservatives in a decision to strike down part of President Obama's health care law, but then changed his mind at the last minute. The speculation had been based mostly around interpretations of the court's written opinions. But CBS legal correspondent Jan Crawford reported Sunday that sources "with specific knowledge of the deliberations" confirmed Roberts's switch (Baker, 7/1).

The Associated Press: More Nuanced View Of Roberts After Health Care Law
Chief Justice John Roberts could have taken down the entire, massive health care law that his fellow Republicans deride as "Obamacare." He could have prevented the Supreme Court decision that largely disabled the most disputed aspects of Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants. He didn't do either, and in the process surprised (or dismayed) longtime court observers of every political stripe (Sherman, 7/2).

Other players' parts in the health law ruling are also examined --

The New York Times: For Attorneys General, Long Shot Brings Payoffs
Few handicappers gave a band of Republican attorneys general much chance of success when they filed a constitutional challenge to President Obama's health care law just minutes after it was signed on March 23, 2010. Some mocked them, while others largely ignored them (Sack and Lichtblau, 6/30).

The New York Times: Vindication For Maligned Lawyer In Justices' Ruling
The first call President Obama made after learning that the Supreme Court had upheld his health care law on Thursday was to thank his solicitor general, Donald B. Verrilli Jr., who had been much maligned for his at-times rocky performance during oral arguments in March. It was sweet vindication (Broder, 6/29).