Roberts’s unequivocal disagreement is somewhat startling, especially as the conservative-leaning justice seemed to be searching for a middle ground just a few months ago during oral arguments on the case, reported The Washington Post’s Robert Barnes.
The chief justice has a particular obligation “to try to achieve consensus,” Roberts has said.
But Roberts didn’t agree with the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision to expand federal rights to legally married gay couples. And he made clear Friday that no consensus is worth a decision he feels oversteps the court’s constitutional bounds.