Quick summary of today's SCOTUS abortion ruling: The four liberals voted for abortion rights, four of the conservatives voted against abortion rights, and Roberts voted for stare decisis. (The weight of short-term precedent, basically.)
The abortion law that SCOTUS struck down today is virtually identical to a law they struck down four years ago. Stare decisis is the principle that says that even if you don't like a decision, you shouldn't immediately overturn it because continuity and consistency are important.
Roberts is like "We just did this four years ago. Stop." The other conservatives are like, "No, this is completely different, for reasons. Also, we have the votes now. Let's go for it."
I'm not the person to write an essay on how this fits into a decades-long history of conservative SCOTUS majorities tiptoeing right up to the precipice of fully overturning Roe v. Wade again and again but never quite making the leap, but yeah, that's extremely relevant context.
And of course it's yet more fodder for the endless debates about what the hell Roberts is up to. ("Wishing he had a 6-3 majority so he didn't have to keep micromanaging the Court's reputation and his place in history every time he sat down at his writing desk" is my best answer.)
And that Kavanaugh AND Gorsuch are both 100% on-board with overturning a barely-dry precedent just because they now have the muscle to do so is a fact with significance far beyond this case.
If Trump somehow gets another SCOTUS seat, it's gonna be utter carnage, however Roberts votes on any particular case.
