Did Justice Kennedy’s tough questioning of Solicitor General Don Verrilli Tuesday show that Kennedy will vote to strike down the individual mandate? Did Roberts’ questions yesterday tip his preference for striking down the whole law? Reasonable minds can disagree. Nobody really knows. But that doesn’t mean this week’s oral arguments did not accomplish anything. Quite the contrary.

Before this week, elite media opinion in Washington was supremely confident that the Supreme Court would uphold Obamacare. The New York Times‘ Linda Greenhouse said the case against Obamacare was “analytically so weak that it dissolves on close inspection.” Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick predicted the Court would side with the Obama administration by a e 6-3 or 7-2 margin.