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Supreme Court More Conservative, Fragmented

For the first time in 11 years, the Supreme Court had a new membership, a new ideological makeup, and a new chief justice. The court wrapped up its current term with a bang, issuing a historic decision on presidential power by striking down military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

With the departure of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the arrivals of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, the court shifted to the right, as expected.

It would have moved far more dramatically to the right had it not been for the court's new swing justice, Anthony Kennedy. It's a role Kennedy has played in the past. But he's been more reliably conservative than O'Connor, and less likely to defect to the more liberal bloc of justices.

For instance, Kennedy's vote prevented the court's four conservatives, including Roberts and Alito, from essentially gutting the Clean Water Act as it has been enforced for more than 30 years.

Kennedy's vote was pivotal in upholding most, but not all, of the contested Texas redistricting plans. He also joined O'Connor and the court's liberals in the first indication of skepticism about the Bush administration's assertion of executive power, the administration's claim that it could, in essence, override Oregon's assisted-suicide law. And in the court's blockbuster Guantanamo case, Kennedy rejected almost every assertion of unilateral executive power claimed by President Bush in setting up war crimes trials outside the code of military justice.

Kennedy is expected to play a pivotal role in the court's next term as well, in cases involving voluntary racial integration of schools, abortion, and federal regulation of the air, and this time he may be on the other side.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Nina Totenberg is NPR's award-winning legal affairs correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR's critically acclaimed newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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