IOW Roberts is applying Ginsberg’s roe vs wade tactic. “boil the frog” and decide that way.
I don't think Roberts is on the gay marriage side-- he wrote the dissent in Windsor, last year's DOMA case. I think it's Ginsburg herself, along with Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor, who prefer not to have SCOTUS rule on this until most of the country has come to accept gay marriage as routine. I think Roberts, along with Scalia, Alito and Thomas, are voting against hearing these cases because they prefer a lot of bad lower court rulings to one bad SCOTUS ruling.
That’s how I see it. She commented on the backlash that Roe received, and pretty much stated flat-out that the court would seek to avoid giving opponents one headliner-type court case around which they could center their efforts.
I say too late - we already have a huge target to see overturned: Lawrence v Texas.
Once you topple Lawrence and go back to Bowers, our legal footing is much, much more solid.