Via Jan Crawford, who previously broke the story about Chief Justice Roberts’ change of mind, comes additional details, Discord at Supreme Court is deep, and personal:
Discord at the Supreme Court is deep and personal after Chief Justice John Roberts’ surprise decision to side with the liberal justices in upholding a large portion of the president’s health care plan. This discord is going to affect this Court for a long time – and no one has any idea how it will be resolved.Conservatives feel a sense of betrayal. They feel that Roberts changed his mind for the wrong reasons.If Roberts had been with the liberals from the beginning, sources tell me that would have been one thing; but switching his position – and relatively late in the process – infuriated the conservatives….It’s not unheard of for the Court to erupt into conflict; Bush v. Gore in 2000 was a famous example. But some people say you would have to go back nearly 70 years to see this kind of tension, and almost bitterness, that now exists among the justices.
I always thought an Obama victory on Obamacare would backfire. But that’s when the loss was along expected lines, with Kennedy as the swing vote. That would have been an expected loss.
But for Roberts to be the swing vote, and to have done it in this manner with a relatively late switch, is demoralizing. I think we’ve felt that sense of betrayal in the past 10 days.
I wonder if that sense of betrayal is why some conservative commentators have turned so negative on the presidential race — they’re taking their frustrations out on Romney.
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