People who suggest kagan could join the majority at the behest of Roberts and he could assign her to write the opinion don’t understand SCOTUS. You don’t join the majority, then get the opportunity to write whatever you want. All in the majority agree on the opinion and in more complicated cases there may be slight decision where the majority may consist of different groups of justices.
But any written opinion will be supported by the majority of justices and there is ZERO opportunity for someone who is opposed to the opinion to join the majority so they can write a terrible opinion. That’s not at all how the court works
The NY state case is pretty straightforward because they limited the case to a simple question. The Dobbs abortion case which just had oral arguments is a better case to look at. In that case, I would not be surprised if there are 6 votes to overturn Casey (Casey is the abortion law, it overruled Roe) but there may only be 5 to completely over turn a court created right to abortion and return the issue back to the states. There seemed to be 5 who believe abortion is a legislative issue the courts should not be involved in. So it’s likely the Dobbs decision has several parts with Roberts being in the 6 justice majority on some and not in the 5 justice majority which is really the only decision that matters.
But any written opinion will be supported by the majority of justices and there is ZERO opportunity for someone who is opposed to the opinion to join the majority so they can write a terrible opinion. That’s not at all how the court works
The NY state case is pretty straightforward because they limited the case to a simple question. The Dobbs abortion case which just had oral arguments is a better case to look at. In that case, I would not be surprised if there are 6 votes to overturn Casey (Casey is the abortion law, it overruled Roe) but there may only be 5 to completely over turn a court created right to abortion and return the issue back to the states. There seemed to be 5 who believe abortion is a legislative issue the courts should not be involved in. So it’s likely the Dobbs decision has several parts with Roberts being in the 6 justice majority on some and not in the 5 justice majority which is really the only decision that matters.