The following is a discussion recorded the night before Thursday's Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act.

Appearing at the New Haven Arts and Ideas Festival, David Plotz, John Dickerson, and Emily Bazelon discussed what they thought the court might decide.

Emily, what are the options for what the Supreme Court could decide tomorrow?

Well, so the Supreme Court could uphold the entire law, strike down a small or large part,

or just trash the whole thing. I think the third is unlikely because it just seems like

such a gargantuan task, but it's possible. So I've been kind of going back and forth

about this. In this way, I feel I've had so many

really strong emotions. It really has felt to me like I'm having a whole relationship with the

possibilities of what's going to happen. And at times I have felt strongly that the court is going

to strike down the crucial individual mandate part of the law,

if not more, because it can, simply because there are five justices who seemed very skeptical

at argument, who, for political reasons, oppose the Obama administration and are concerned

about kind of infinite expansion of congressional power under the Commerce Clause,

and this is their vehicle for limiting it.

And since they can stop it, and they clearly, on some level, seem to want to,

it seems like they really could.

So that's like my tortured soul half, my jilted girlfriend half.

The other part of me thinks...

You guys are getting a lot more than an opinion

about the Supreme Court here.

The other part of me thinks that they are going to look

into the face of this absolutely momentous step

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