Why did he vote with them? Did he say before that he wanted it overturned?
He didn't. His concurring opinion was to uphold the Mississippi law as consistent with the Roe v. Wade trimester framework, while dissenting from the overrule.
So, it was 6-3 to uphold the Mississippi law and 5-4 to overrule Roe and Casey.
Why did he vote with them? Did he say before that he wanted it overturned?He was for a half-measure. Ruling for the state of MS but not overturning Roe.
He did not vote with the majority on overturning Roe vs. Wade. There were 2 different parts to the ruling. Roberts only voted with the majority on upholding some of the restrictions in the state law that was at issue, then he went and voted with the left to uphold Roe vs. Wade.
Roberts concurred with the decision to uphold the Mississippi law. He wrote a concurring opinion agreeing with the result, BUT he expressly said he would not have overruled Roe v. Wade. This is common for Robert’s as he believes that change should be incremental, and only address the specific matters before the court.
That is why the law was upheld 6-3 but the overturning of Roe was 5-4.
Gwjack