“Roberts will not be on the losing side”
That’s the key.
He’ll vote the winning side. Does not want to be seen on this as The Loser.
He views the decision primarily in terms of institutional legitimacy: a 6:3 vote appears much more convincing than 5:4.
A little more to it than that. Further discussions with Zen Master:
if Roberts is on the winning side, he as CJ writes the opinion.
if he is on the losing side vs. K, ACB, Gorsuch, Thomas and Alito . . .
CLARENCE THOMAS writes the decision. Roberts absolutely would not want Thomas writing this decision. Now, some, including a longtime Freeper whom I haven’t asked permission to use his name here, think that Roberts could “limit the damage” if he writes this. Zen Master disagrees, saying overturning Roe IS the “damage” from the leftist point of view, and besides there is no way to compromise the “viability” issue-—and any attempt to finesse that would probably create brand new issues the court would still have to rule on.
It makes sense to me that Roberts is in a box and MUST vote to overturn Roe.