Analysis: Supreme Court is bold, confident, conservative and ready to move further right
WASHINGTON — This is not the Supreme Court most Americans have known.
Since Chief Justice Earl Warren retired in 1969, ending an era of liberal activism, the high court has been dominated by moderates.
They included Lewis Powell, a soft-spoken Southern lawyer appointed by President Richard Nixon, and Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy, both appointed by President Ronald Reagan.
They were not scholars and did not espouse an ideology or a methodology for deciding cases. But they brought wisdom and practical experience to deciding the hardest issues, and in O'Connor's case, political know-how as well. She had been the Republican leader of the Arizona Senate before becoming a judge, and she knew how to forge a compromise.
Year after year, they kept the court on a middle course. Most terms ended with a mix of rulings, some that pleased conservatives and others that heartened liberals.
That has all changed. There is no longer a moderate in the
