dissent issued by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito certainly reads as though it were written to be the majority opinion. Among other things, the joint dissent's discussion of the taxing power doesn't respond to the Chief Justice's opinion (indeed, I think it never even cites it). Rather, it addresses only the government's argument. By contrast, the Chief's opinion repeatedly takes issue with the joint dissent. This strongly suggests to me that the joint dissent was written first, as the proposed majority opinion, but failed to garner the fifth vote from the Chief... One serious problem with the above theory is that it's difficult to reconcile with the fact that the Chief would have assigned the majority opinion in the first place. An alternative theory is that the joint dissenters wrote their opinion as they did, after the Chief circulated his draft, in order to signal their deep dissatisfaction with his draft. I now lean towards this alternative theory. I might have missed something but a quick skim through the conservative opinion has me thinking Whelan's right: While they do address Ginsburg by name and answer her arguments directly, at no point do they address Roberts -- even in the crucial section on the taxing power that ultimately upheld the mandate. (The opinion starts on page 127 in case you want to check our work.) Instead, their arguments are addressed to "the Government," i.e. the DOJ and the Solicitor General. It strikes me as deeply odd that they wouldn't tackle