Legal experts sound alarm after razor-thin birthright vote: 'The most insane part'

[Ocelot II]

3. My theory, for what it's worth (and maybe that's not much), is that both Kavanaugh and Gorsuch

are trying to position themselves to become the next Chief Justice. Roberts is 71 and there's been no indication that he intends to retire soon, but when the time comes a new CJ will have to be chosen. That appointment is made by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and while Chief Justices aren't necessarily chosen from among sitting associate justices, sometimes they are. Kavanaugh's lame concurrence and Gorsuch's even lamer dissent (opinions that should have embarrassed both of them) indicated their allegiance to the GOP's anti-immigration principles while the majority preserved the constitutionality of the 14th Amendment's birthright citizenship clause. In other words, no harm, no foul. Both of them must have known that the majority opinion was the correct one, but that they could offer a contrary, pro-GOP position without changing the outcome (the dissents of Thomas and Alito were a foregone conclusion since they always side with Trump no matter what the case is about). Having presented their credentials as GOP anti-immigration ideologues they can sit back and wait for Roberts to retire during (they hope) some future GOP administration in which the president will give one of them the big chair in the middle of the bench.