The Supreme Court’s healthcare ruling upended conventional wisdom and expert predictions at nearly every turn. The court said in a 5-4 decision this week that the individual mandate in President Obama’s healthcare law is constitutional. The court also said the law’s Medicaid expansion was unconstitutional, but found a fix that didn’t require striking down the entire law.
Even lawmakers and legal experts who correctly predicted that the court would uphold the mandate were surprised by the details of the decision and the makeup of the court’s majority. Some lawyers who worked on the case were surprised at their victories on certain points.
“I’m still surprised at how we got here. I’m sure President Obama is surprised at how we got here,” said Alberto Gonzales, who served as attorney general under President George W. Bush and helped vet Chief Justice John Roberts during the nomination process.
Gonzales said he expected the court to uphold the healthcare law, but not on the grounds it used.
Roberts and the court’s liberal justices said the individual mandate is constitutional because it functions as a tax — an argument that hadn’t gotten any traction until Thursday.
