Rumors are flying around that Chief Justice Roberts changed his position on healthcare reform because the conservative justices were "scaring him away" with their zealotry. Via Huff Post:
He certainly didn't trust the dissenters, as he clearly instructed his law clerks to begin working on an alternative majority opinion (the final product was too polished and too long to have been written at the last minute). And he waited to see what was written.
Roberts is smart enough to understand that his name will be forever associated with this gaggle of justices -- four/five of which are batshit crazy. I don't think Roberts particularly likes the idea of history judging him alongside Scalia, Thomas and Alito.
[Thanks to Kush Arora Attorney at Law.]