Did Justice Roberts cave to Barack Obama's pressure?

Answer 1

No, that is unlikely. Chief Justice Roberts is a staunch conservative, who has voted with the conservatives on the court a large majority of the time; a number of his decisions have gone against the president, in fact. We may never know why he decided in this one case to side with the liberals and moderates on the bench and give the president a surprising victory, but pressure from Mr. Obama would not have affected Justice Roberts in any way.