Keep-away on the high court
June 17, 2008
Watching oral arguments at the Supreme Court is “like watching a very young, very energized bloc of four conservatives on the court playing keep away with the ball…,” Slate’s SCOTUS reporter Dahlia Lithwick said at the American Constitutional Society’s convention last weekend. “You have a sense that energy has shifted.”
Linda Greenhouse, speaking on the same panel, picked up the sports metaphor and ran with it.
“It’s harder to get energized when you are playing defense,” the New York Times’ reporter said, pointing to recent close calls that went the conservatives’ way.
Liberal Justices Breyer, Souter, Ginsberg and Stevens (average age: 75) “have a lot of intellectual energy,” she added.
“I think their role as they see it now is to keep [too-conservative rulings] from happening,” Greenhouse said. “That is not as visibly an energetic position to be standing on.”
For more on Saturday’s panel, check out this report on our sister blog, DC Dicta.
BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law
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