Law, Politics and the Supreme Court

Erik speculated that I would have more on Liptak’s story on free Speech and the Supreme Court. It turns out that he was right! Read the whole etc., but to summarize:

• As I’ve said before, to reduce Supreme Court decision-making to nothing but politics is an oversimplification, although if the public is going to take away one oversimplification it’s one that’s much closer to the truth than the silly idea that Supreme Court justices are just umpires mechanically calling balls and strikes.  (Unless we’re talking about umpires of the 80s offended at the very idea that they should be applying the strike zone in the rule book.)
• As in generally the case in American politics, polarization on the Supreme Court is not symmetrical.  The free speech data, despite the Both Sides Do It framing, is an excellent case in point.