This article is from the archive of our partner .
The outcomes of Supreme Court cases are notoriously difficult to predict, but that hasn't stopped some of the top legal minds in the country from venturing educated guesses as to how the high court will rule on the Affordable Care Act. The consensus among legal experts is that Chief Justice John Roberts will author the majority opinion (he hasn't written for the majority since February). But just because Roberts is conservative, doesn't mean the court will strike down the bill. Monday's decision on Arizona's immigration bill, in particular, has provided fresh fodder for forecasters. These are the tea leaves experts are reading into.
The happy-go-lucky justices. If the Supreme Court was about to side against you in a landmark case, would you be cheerful when talking about the case? The likely answer is no and that's what has conservatives worried about the behavior of two of the court's liberal justices in the last month. The dreading began in earnest when liberal Justice Ginsburg spoke at an American Constitution Society convention in a decidedly cheerful tone, joking about the amount of "press conference, prayer circles, protests and counter-protests" occurring near the court, poking fun at the Anti-Injunction Act and framing the question of the individual mandate as an issue of whether it should be "chopped like a head of broccoli." Those remarks appear at the 27:40 mark: