He managed to take a case where there were 5 votes to stop it, and make a unanimous decision that tells the lower court that if the “reason given” is “We thought that knowing how many people were in a state illegally might be a useful piece of information to advance our policy agenda with the american people” — that is a good reason, and cannot be rejected.
Meanwhile, they also said that the lower court can’t use any of the other arguments, they can only rule on whether there is a rational basis for asking the question. If the administration can’t put THAT together, they deserve to lose.
This was NOT a unanimous decision. It was only unanimous on the first two parts. The rest split into the usual divisions, some with Roberts siding with the conservatives, some with the libs, and importantly the conservatives did NOT join Roberts little game and would have given the administration a total win.
Bingo.