After Tuesday’s oral arguments, in which Justice Kennedy posed pleasantly tough questions to Solicitor General Verrilli, it was hard for conservatives not to get excited about the prospects for an imminent Supreme Court decision striking down the individual mandate.

The next morning’s arguments could have only redoubled optimism on the right. The main question before the Court on Wednesday—”severability”—was premised upon the best-case scenario: Imagine that the Court holds the individual mandate unconstitutional. Is the best remedy to nullify just the mandate, or the mandate and a few other provisions … or Obamacare altogether? It is the stuff that Tea Party dreams are made of.