Following the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy and the
controversial confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court
plunged into a contentious term that featured divisive cases involving
abortion, immigration, capital punishment, and voting rights on the
court's docket. In American Justice 2019, Mark Joseph Stern examines
the term's most controversial opinions and highlights the consequences
of Chief Justice John Roberts stepping into a new role as the court's
swing vote.
No longer bound by Kennedy's erratic moderation, Roberts has begun
doling out victories to both Democrats and Republicans, albeit with a
clear rightward tilt. Early in the term, Roberts delivered a public
rebuke to Trump's attacks on the judiciary, foreshadowing his refusal to
tolerate some of the president's most extreme contortions of the law.
Stern tracks the chief justice's evolution from staunch conservative to
part-time centrist. Along the way, he details the term's blockbusters
and surprises, including an unlikely alliance between Justices Neil
Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor on criminal justice, and an especially
radical ruling on the death penalty that overturned decades of
precedent. Stern's account depicts a court sharply divided over its role
in American democracy, with the man at its center striving to stay above
the political fray without abandoning his conservative instincts.
