We’ve got all the news from today’s centerpiece oral arguments at TPM HCR, including Sahil Kapur’s account from inside the courtroom and Brian Beutler’s “it’s not as bad as it looked” analysis.

In a stunning blow to federal prosecutors, a judge throws out the most serious charges against Michigan’s Hutaree militia.

Audio of Tuesday’s Supreme Court oral arguments. Listen.

Or you can read the transcript.

Here’s audio Monday’s, too, if you missed it.

Kennedy, Roberts, Alito all ask skeptical questions on the mandate but it’s not clear after today if there are five votes to throw out the mandate, Sahil Kapur reports.

A reminder that this sort of tea-leaf reading can be overdone and misleading. But it isn’t necessarily. The current court is a lot more direct in its questioning with fewer rhetorical feints than courts past.

Justice Scalia was predictably skeptical of the mandate in today’s arguments, invoking one of conservatives’ favorite talking points: Can Congress mandate the consumption of broccoli?

The consensus from reporters and legal experts scampering out of the Supreme Court as today’s oral arguments wrapped up a few minutes ago is that the mandate is, in the words of Jeffrey Toobin, in “grave trouble.”

Toobin also observed that Solicitor General David Verrilli had a “bad day” arguing in favor of the mandate. “He was not ready for the answers from the conservative justices,” Toobin said on CNN.

More soon from TPM’s Sahil Kapur, who was in the courtroom.

Late Update: Reactions from others whom I trust: Read More

Mitt Romney’s California mansion makeover will reportedly include an elevator…for cars.

Rick Santorum’s “bulls**t” moment was only the latest in a long, proud line of politicians acting like human beings.

Here’s our (NSFW) video megamix.

Far right Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert warns liberals that they should be against the individual mandate too because a future “redneck president” could say “‘you know what, there’s some practices that go on in your house that cause people too much money and healthcare, so we’re going to have the right to rule over those as well.'” I think Gohmert may be referring to his pet bugbear buggery. But who knows?

Today, day two of arguments, the Court zeroes in on the crux of the health care reform controversy: the individual mandate.