CBS is getting credit for one of the big stories of the day, reporting on the behind-closed-doors discussions of the United States Supreme Court as the nine Justices discussed the fate of the President's health care law. CBS Reports that Justice Anthony Kennedy made attempts to sway Chief Justice Roberts to stay with the four Conservative members of the court in finding that the individual mandate was unconstitutional, thus the entire law should be thrown out. But CBS wasn't first with this theory.
The supposition that the Chief Justice switched sides after initially siding with the Conservatives did not begin with the CBS report over the weekend. Writing in Salon.Com last week, Law Professor Paul Campos speculated that the Chief Justice changed sides, probably at the last minute and he came to that hypothesis from reading the opinion by the Chief Justice in which he joins the liberal members in finding that the Mandate was constitutional solely because the penalty for not buying health insurance is really just a tax. His argument is gleaned from the language and diction used throughout the Opinion, the Concurrence and the Dissent.
Professor Campos joins Lawrence O'Donnell tonight at 10pm ET. In the meantime here is his piece that likely beat everyone to the punch.