Litigation

Justice Kennedy Seen as ?Court?s True Compass?

By Peter Hardin

A  series of end-of-term snapshots of the Supreme Court offers insight and analysis.

Justice Anthony Kennedy (photo at right) is described as “the court’s true compass” in a Wall Street Journal article. The landmark Citizens United ruling “stands at the head of a series of 5-4 decisions that was resolved by the 73-year-old justice appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988,” the article says, and it adds:

“And while conservatives have made strides in their decades-long campaign to seize the bench from moderates and liberals who had dominated since the 1930s, Justice Kennedy still sometimes upsets their plans.”

A Washington Post article focuses on Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and is headlined, “Roberts led Supreme Court through assertive term.” It says Justice Roberts “continued to play a dominant role, and this year he joined the court’s liberals in a few limited cases. As a result, he was in the majority of the court’s decisions more than any other justice.”

Another Wall Street Journal report touched on several final opinions to complete a profile of retiring Justice Stevens, headlined, “Stevens Evolved from Court Loner to Liberal Wing’s Leader.”

“By coincidence, perhaps,” the article begins, “Justice John Paul Stevens left the Supreme Court Monday much as he joined it in 1975?filing a pair of idiosyncratic opinions that no other justice joined.”

An earlier Gavel Grab post mentioned other articles recapping the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence in its latest term.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 30, 2010 (boomark / email).