All Things Considered

In the days since the Supreme Court's historic health care ruling, there has been a good deal of speculation about whether Chief Justice John Roberts changed his mind in the course of deliberations, deciding late in the game to uphold the constitutionality of most of the law.

Even before the decision was announced, conservative writers railed that liberals and the so-called mainstream media were trying to intimidate the chief justice.

A while back, Robin Boros lost her job, and she and her husband couldn't afford health insurance.

One time, Boros passed out, and her husband called an ambulance.

"The hospital bill, it was atrocious," she says. "We couldn't pay it."

They never figured out why Boros passed out. But after that, she and her husband avoided going to the doctor. At times, she says, she even bought blood pressure medication on the street.

"That was awful," Boros says. "But you do what you got to do."

Chief Justice John Roberts has been called to task by conservatives for siding with the more liberal justices to uphold President Obama's health care law. This week a CBS reporter said Roberts switched his views after at first siding with conservatives. Justices sometimes change their minds after the initial conference on a case as they circulate draft opinions, consult with colleagues and think about the issues. What's unusual was the leak which was an apparent attempt to undermine the chief justice. Nina Totenberg talks to Robert Siegel.

W. Ralph Eubanks is the author of Ever Is a Long Time and The House at the End of the Road. He is director of publishing at the Library of Congress.

The work of William Faulkner looms as a mountain too high to climb for many readers, with his long, complex sentences and shifting point of view. But Faulkner's famously tangled mix of literary techniques meant nothing when I was about 12 years old and picked up a copy of The Reivers.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THING CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel. Tensions are growing along the border between Turkey and Syria. Turkish troop reinforcements and anti-aircraft gunners were dispatched to the frontier after Syria shot down a Turkish military jet over the Mediterranean on June 22nd. The circumstances of the shoot-down are still in dispute.