Its likely Roberts underestimates the level of anger his action unleashed.
This ruling defined the man forever. He will never be able to run from it, there will always be a large segment of the country who will despise him.
Despise is not near strong enough a word. For the lot of the Progs.
It will be hard to determine which was the more influential action, Roberts’ reshaping of Obamacare, which was probably planned long ago, or Roberts’ adminstration of the oath of office to a president elect who had just told the world, on his web site, that he is a naturalized citizen, a 14th Amendment “Native-born citizen of the US.” Roberts and the rest of the progressives were showing you that Constitutional provisions which interfere with their plans can be ignored, with the help of the media which will parrot “because it was not defined in the Constitution”. Those words were not untrue, but also apply to every other term in the Constitution, created, as explained by James Madison, to rely upon the common-law and language familiar to its framers because definitions change in time, and the Constitution was written to be understood by literate citizens, not just those with hundreds of law books. Telling the world that no one knew what it meant to be a natural born citizen was legal sophistry, and a lie.
The Constitution gives the Supreme Court Original jurisdiction in issues affecting ministers of government. As cases questioning natural born citizenship were rejected for hearing by the court using the "rule of nine", which included the two new justices who would have lost their lifetime positions had it been heard and Minor v. Happersett not overturned. Even with precedent and fairly recent cases confirming both the postive and common law, it was clear that Roberts was voting with the block on the left not to hear the case. It was not about birth certificates. It was about Chief Justice Morrison Waite's decision with all nine justices concurring:
“The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that.At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners.”
Roberts’ behavior was fully consistent with his first action, administering the oath to a candidate when every US Senator had signed agreement to the understanding stated in the April 2008 Senate Resolution 511:
“My assumption and my understanding is that if you are born of American parents, you are naturally a natural-born American citizen,” Chertoff replied. “That is mine, too,” said Leahy.”
Roberts could have overseen a reinterpretation of the Article II Section 1, but it would have to be retroactive, since there is no doubt about what C.J. Waite told us, nor what C.J. John Marshall or James Madison or 14th Amendment author John Bingham or C.J. Charles Evans Hughes. Roberts was probably always a secret progressive. Yes, Harriet Meiers would probably have been a better choice.
It’s even more likely he has no real ability to comtemplate the many consequences.