Sources: Roberts Switched Views

To support health-care law.

Chief Justice John Roberts initially wanted to overturn the health-care act but later changed his position and formed an alliance with the court’s four liberal justices, two sources said on Monday. After deciding to uphold the Affordable Care Act, Roberts then had to undergo a monthlong campaign by the court’s four conservative justices to change his mind. In a strange twist, Justice Anthony Kennedy—the man that many thought would be the swing vote—was reportedly “relentless” in trying to get Roberts to side with the conservative justices. The conservatives refused to join any aspect of Roberts’ opinion, and then crafted a highly unusual unsigned joint dissent.