Chief Justice John Roberts lost the Supreme Court and the defining case of his generation

Chief Justice John Roberts has long piloted America's highest court, securing majorities on controversies over religion, race, voting rights and campaign finance regulation. But on fundamental abortion rights and in the defining case of his generation, Roberts came up short.

Friday's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned nearly a half-century of precedent, will be a seminal case in the annals of law and learning. It will be paired with the 1973 Roe v. Wade landmark that had declared a constitutional right to end a pregnancy, just as the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education, which ended the "separate but equal" doctrine and began desegregation of schools, has long been tethered to Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision that permitted separate but equal accommodations for Black and White people.