Wikipedia. 'Nuff said about that. Of course they wanted to be sure a key Second Amendment case didn't go forward until the SCOTUS was friendly, that is a far cry from "sabotage". In 2003, Rehnquist was Chief Justice and he didn't exactly have a track record of being friendly to the Second Amendment. A 5-4 decision the other way had Rehnquist been able to hear it would have been disastrous. The NRA was extremely positive and did a lot to push Heller once the SCOTUS was friendlier and we got the right decision in 2008.