Court watchers keep busy

While the Supreme Court takes the summer off, its followers find other ways to scrutinize it. These days, the justices are helping them more than I can recall in the relatively recent past. Newsweek snagged Kennedy, whose profile rose significantly this past year.

In 19 cases during the past year, the Supreme Court split down the middle along ideological lines. The court’s four conservatives—Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito—lined up on one side, and the four liberals—Justices Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter—lined up on the other. Each time, the tie was broken by a fifth vote belonging to Justice Anthony Kennedy. On 13 occasions, Kennedy aligned himself with the conservatives. While the court is clearly moving to the right, it’s obvious that Kennedy holds the balance of power.

The Roberts Court is also the Kennedy Court, critics started pointing out before the end of the term. Some say he wants that role, some say he shies away from that. But look at how this article ends:

Chief Justice Roberts has tried, so far without much success, to get the justices to speak with fewer voices. He wants them to write fewer “concurrences”—judicial opinions that, like Kennedy’s in the school-desegregation case, reach the same conclusion as the majority but articulate different reasons. Asked by NEWSWEEK about this effort, Kennedy laughed and interjected, “I guess I haven’t helped much. My initial reaction was going to be, ‘Just let me write all the opinions’.”