Irv Gornstein, executive director of Georgetown’s Supreme Court Institute, said Roberts wants the court to be perceived as an impartial, nonpartisan body whose justices decide legal questions based on their view of the law, not politics.

“I think he would be concerned that a series of 5-4 rulings, in which the five are Republican-appointed justices and the four are Democrat-appointed justices, would threaten to destroy that perception of the court,” he told The Hill in an email.

“I don’t think the Chief Justice wants to be remembered as the Chief Justice who presided over the court at the time that the public lost faith in the court, and began to regard it as just another partisan institution,” Gornstein added.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/407520-controversy-over-kavanaugh-could-weigh-on-roberts-court

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4082259&forum_id=2#36848723)

Should the gay marriage case have been avoided until they could get a non 5-4 decision?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4082259&forum_id=2#36848740)

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/sSC170111_Gornstein.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4082259&forum_id=2#36849800)