A narrowly-conceived Supremes term

Here's the piece I did for the Register on the just-completed Supreme Court term. Obne could argue that it continues to be Justice Kennedy's court in that he's the swing vote and he was in the majority 92% of the time. But one could also argue that Chief Justice Roberts, who has long argued that he wants the court to be less divided and generally narrow in its rulings -- avoiding constitutionallly-based edicts when possible, being a court of "conservative minimalism" -- has begun to put his stamp on the court in earnest. Even the Ricci decision, which will no doubt be much discussed this week, what with hearings on the nomination of Sotomayor, is narrower than it might have been. The case of the Hillary movie, which just might lead to a substantial overturning of the McCain-Fenigold campaign finance deform abortion, scheduled for September. mioght be an exception to this pattern of cautious decisions.