Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades

Finally got around to reading Adam Liptak's review of the Roberts Court from a month ago, Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades.

"Four of the six most conservative justices of the 44 who have sat on the court since 1937 are serving now: Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Antonin Scalia and, most conservative of all, Clarence Thomas. (The other two were Chief Justices Burger and Rehnquist.) Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the swing justice on the current court, is in the top 10.

The Roberts court is finding laws unconstitutional and reversing precedent — two measures of activism — no more often than earlier courts. But the ideological direction of the court’s activism has undergone a marked change toward conservative results."

The related infographic puts it in a little more context.