again it all depends what Roberts is trying to achieve. As Chief Justice of SCOTUS ( a dream job for any lawyer btw), he has to worry about what effect the ruling has on the country now and for centuries to come.
He could just as easily justified that the law was unconstitutional. But his Court would then be viewed as totally partisan and worse, all the tough issues that Congress refuses to deal with would be dumped on SCOTUS's lap.
Justifying it under the "commerce" clause was becoming more and more of a stretch also and opened the Court to more of this type of political cases in the future. Justifying it under the general power to tax basically throws all these issues back to Congress where they belong. Actually a smart play if that is what he was trying to achieve.
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