At her swearing in, her acceptance speech told the Dumbos in Congress Exactly where she stood and put them in their place. Of course she told it in a nice way... so don't know if any of them will be able to grasp it.

Garry-

This right here. Very strategic.

Her actual knowledge of the Constitution and the true intent may intimidate Roberts to the point he may concede the writing of majority decisions to her.

Garry-

Each justice has one vote. Whichever group has the majority....5 or more.....that is the side that writes the opinion and their view is the law.

Is that what you are asking ?

They can each vote however they want but only Roberts OR Thomas will decide who writes the opinion for the majority. If Roberts votes with the minority..he does not have a say in who writes the opinion. That is up to Thomas

I understand Thomas, as he is the eldest, or has the most years. I don't understand Roberts. There are others who have been there longer. Right? If he does fall into the majority, why is it him and not another Justice?

The court is divided, but not in an official way.

Because Roberts is the Chief Justice.

The Chief Justice is appointed by the president and the chief appointment is lifetime.

After Rehnquist passed away(the former chief) Bush appointed Roberts to fill his open seat and appointed him as chief. I don't think bush had to appoint Roberts as chief but he chose to instead of an already sitting justice.

Maybe a hypothetical.

Lets say a 2A case is being heard by SCOTUS. It appears that the vote will be 5 to 4 in favor of our side..
If Roberts votes with the libs...minority...then he has no control over who writes the majority opinion. That will be up to Thomas to decide since he is the senior justice on the majority side. He may even assign the writing to himself. We know he is by far the most 2A positive justice on the court. Roberts knows that too.

So Roberts may decide to cast his vote with the conservatives and make it a 6x3 decision. At this point Roberts assumes his Chief Justice role and assigns who writes the opinion........which will likely be him so he can water it down.

Roberts only has the CJ authority when he votes with the majority side. If he does not, then Thomas decides........if he's in the majority.

Conversely, Roberts could vote with the libs in a 4x5 decision that decides against 2A (not likely now) At that point he is in the majority on the liberal side and will control who writes the opinion for the liberal majority

My understanding is that each justice retains the the right to offer a dissenting opinion if they so choose, as does the minority side. I believe that even a justice on the majority side could offer an opinion if he or she feels it pertinent to offer a differing route or legal basis.

I believe the 2A case Barrett is known for was a similar type individual opinion.

I don’t know about all that stuff but I’m almost tired of winning......PSYCHE!!!!!!

Ok I understand it now. I have wondered for years why Roberts seemed to have written so many. I did not know the Pres. appointed a Chief Justice. I assumed it was always the Senior Justice. Not in age but in time spent on the court.

Thank you all for clarifying this for me. I learned something I should have already known.

That's correct. Each justice MAY write a dissent or a partial concurrence.
But the protocol I described above is in place to prevent the following.

Suppose again that the 2A case is decided 5 conservatives and 4 liberals.........with Roberts voting with the libs.

Under no system of rationality, fairness, equity, morality, etc........ SHOULD the chief justice on the LOSING side, either write or appoint someone to write the majority's opinion. We can easily envision Roberts choosing the weakest justice in the majority, or even one of the lib justices in the minority, to write for the majority. That would obviously cause nothing but turmoil down the road

Thanks for laying it out Ken, I didnt know how they chose who writes the opinion. Thomas has been gold for conservatives, I think Amy will be the same. Best pick for Trump by far.