For seven years, it looked like a bad prediction, but hey--better late than never (especially when it's the most important case that's come along the pike, by far, in those seven years).
Here's the comment I made at Booman Tribune lo these seven years ago:
I don't think Roberts is going to be all that bad. He isn't anyone I'd want a Democratic president to nominate, mind you, but given that it's Dubya doing the nominatin', I think we actually dodged a bullet here. I don't believe he is going to be any more right wing than Sandra Day O'Connor, in fact, and may very well take over her role as a swing vote.
Where do I get this? Well, to start with I posted yesterday that I saw a "ray of hope":
Unlike judges like Scalia, Rehnquist, or Bork, Roberts doesn't strike me as a judge who sinks his teeth into right wing ideology with gusto for its own sake. Clearly this guy has been the ultimate Washington insider attorney slash corporate whore. But once he's got a lifetime SCOTUS appointment, there's no more ladders to climb, no one to whore himself out to, really.
So what if he gets in, and then turns into another David Souter when he no longer has the leash of his right wing masters around his neck? One can hope...
And a few minutes ago, I heard a story on NPR's Morning Edition that bolstered that hope. It's the first long story of the program, after the news roundup--listen, if you get a chance this morning, to the exchange between Roberts and Rehnquist (whom I despise). The way Roberts quickly responded to Rehnquist's question about "mental torture" of prisoners gives me a lot more hope about the guy.
Even if Roberts never joins the liberals again, I will always be thankful for this vote. And I mean that not just in a political sense, because I am, and have been for years, one of the millions of uninsured who will benefit hugely from this law. I have been nervous about this ruling for months, and today I am beyond ecstatic!