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AFTER STEVENS

What will the Supreme Court be like without its liberal leader?by Jeffrey ToobinMARCH 22, 2010Supreme Court Justices are remembered for their opinions, but they are revealed by their questions. For many years, Sandra Day O?Connor chose to open the questioning in most cases, and thus show the lawyers?and her colleagues?which way she, as the Court?s swing vote, was leaning. Today, Antonin Scalia often jumps in first, signalling the intentions of the Court?s ascendant conservative wing, and sometimes Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., makes his views, which are usually aligned with Scalia?s, equally clear. New Justices tend to defer to their senior colleagues, but Sonia Sotomayor, in her first year on the Court, has displayed little reluctance to test lawyers on the facts and the procedural posture of their cases; these kinds of questions had generally been the province of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who, at times, has not seemed entirely pleased by the newcomer?s vigor...continue to full post

Full post as published by Lethal Injection on July 01, 2010 (boomark / email).