It is always risky to make predictions about the secretive Supreme Court. Earlier this year, for example, Pepperdine University law professor Douglas Kmiec--buoyed by a series (11 out of 14) of early, unanimous opinions--praised Chief Justice John Roberts for achieving greater consensus, only to be chagrined the next day when the Court handed down a couple of contentious five-to-four decisions.
"The Roberts honeymoon may be over," moaned Kmiec ruefully. But for the "honeymoon" to be "over," there would have to have been an engagement and a wedding. There was not.
Normally, the High Court decides the easy cases first. The 11 nine-to-nothing decisions were easy because there was no dissent. The five-to-four death penalty decision, on the other hand, was also easy, because many capital punishment cases (by far, the plurality of the Court's work) have pretty much divided the Court into predetermined blocs on most cases in that area. . . .
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