authored by ANYBODY since about 1972 because the Court has been a fairly right wing institution since Nixon. So a fortiorari there aren't going to have been any signature lefty opinions of the sort described.

Had this happened in, say, 2009, though, the Obamacare decision would have upheld the constitutionality of the act probably on a straight commerce clause basis without the need for the "tax" finding, and without the medicaid expansion being left to the states. A conservative might have justifiably (though I would have disagreed) believed a fundamental right was impinged.