Seeing the uproar over the Court’s decision in Citizens United, imagine the public reaction if the Court had done what a majority appeared to want to do in NAMUDNO—striking down a key portion of the Voting Rights Act.
Indeed, had the Court done so in the voting rights case, one wonders if they would have had the stomach to act so boldly in CU.
Maybe the Chief Justice had a sense of the public concern over the CU opinion, and that’s why he decided not to write the majority opinion.
UPDATE: Morgan Kousser made similar remarks at the Lowenstein festschrift. When the webcast archive is available, I’ll post a link.