Roberts Will Struggle to Hold Center as Court’s Makeup Shifts

Chief Justice John Roberts’ efforts to rein in his conservative colleagues and slow walk major changes in U.S. law will be more difficult after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Roberts, 65, begins his 16th term leading the court on Oct. 5, and has recently emerged as its ideological center. Mostly voting with conservatives, he has sometimes crossed over to vote with his liberal colleagues and at other times restrained his fellow Republican-appointed justices, creating narrow rulings that avoided sweeping legal proclamations.

But without the liberal icon, conservatives will hold a two-seat majority when oral arguments start and ...