The Supreme Court ended its term this week in familiar fashion, issuing blockbuster conservative decisions on affirmative action, gay rights and student loans that divided along partisan lines, with the court’s three Democratic appointees in dissent. While not quite as stunning as last June’s decisions eliminating the right to abortion and expanding gun rights, the new rulings were of a piece with them and were a further indication that the court remains receptive to the conservative legal movement’s agenda, including cutting back on a progressive conception of civil rights and frustrating President Biden’s initiatives. But the entire story of the most recent term is considerably more complicated than that of the previous one, which had seemed to establish an unyielding conservative juggernaut characterized by impatience and ambition — and built to last. A year later, the court remains deeply conservative but is more in tune with the fitfully incremental approach of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who is attentive to his court’s legitimacy, than with the take-no-prisoners approach of Justice Clarence Thomas. The chief justice’s strategy — and votes — produced a fair number of liberal victories.

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Persons: —, John G, Roberts, Clarence Thomas Organizations: Democratic