Ace Supreme

by digby

Via Adam B at Kos, I see that Scotusblog has compiled some interesting statistics about the latest Supreme Court term. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that they have a conservative majority after all, with Anthony Kennedy playing his Hamlet role mostly in service of conservative outcomes:

Nineteen of the twenty-four 5-4 cases broke down along strictly ideological lines and, as in most every recent Term, the Court’s five more conservative members won a greater share of 5-4 victories than the four more liberal justices. The Roberts-Scalia-Kennedy-Thomas-Alito combination prevailed in 13 of 24 (or 54%) 5-4 decisions, while the Stevens-Souter-Ginsburg-Breyer grouping prevailed in only six of 24 (25%) decisions.

As Adam B pointed out this has had some rather predictable results:

In one full term, this Court has severely curbed local efforts to promote racial diversity in schools, upheld a right-wing ban on a necessary medical procedure for women, curbed students' free speech rights, crippled Congress' ability to keep corporate money out of political advertising, prevented taxpayers from challenging the constitutionality of Bush's faith-based initiatives, made it almost impossible for women to prevail on claims of longterm sex discrimination . . . and they're just getting started.
I recall during the Alito fight that some people argued that there wasn't really a fifth vote to overturn Roe or any number of other settled cases because good old Kennedy was still there. Everyone was supposed to gird themselves for the day Justice Stephens shuffled off his mortal coil. I thought that was nonsense because Justice John Roberts struck me as a very, very smooth operator who would know exactly how to manipulate someone with this kind of temperament:

From the beginning, Kennedy's performance on the Court has been defined not by indecision but by self-dramatizing utopianism. He believes it is the role of the Court in general and himself in particular to align the messy reality of American life with an inspiring and highly abstracted set of ideals. He thinks that great judges, like great literary figures, have both the power and the duty to "impose order on a disordered reality," as he told the Kennedy Center audience. By forcing legislators to respect a series of moralistic abstractions about liberty, equality, and dignity, judges, he believes, can create a national consensus about American values that will usher in what he calls "the golden age of peace." This lofty vision has made Kennedy the Court's most activist justice -- that is, the justice who votes to strike down more state and federal laws combined than any of his colleagues. ...

Roberts certainly seemed like someone who would figure out how to stroke Kennedy's famous ego and I'd bet money that's exactly what he did. He'll let him vote with the other side just enough to make him believe he's still the independent swing vote and BMOC but he'll make sure Kennedy swings the way he wants when it's important. Grandiose utopians who believe their own hype are always easy to manipulate. Just ask Dick Cheney.


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