Hacker News Reader

Comment by adrianratnapala | Hacker News Reader

> Interestingly, it's a 5-4 decision, with Kavanaugh writing the decision, joined by the 4 liberal justices. Probably the most unexpected alignment of the current term!

It isn't really. It's just the standard partisan split, albeit with one guy "crossing the floor". Such crossing is common but since most of the media is incapable of understanding anything but partisan point scoring, they portray the Justices as partisan hacks, which they are not.

Heck, they aren't even that good at tracking point-scores, since the most common score at SC United (states) is 9-0.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_term_opinions_of_the_Supr...

View on HN

The "vote alignment by ideology" view on this page linked elsewhere is instructive.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/05/opinion-analysis-divided-...

Basically in order from left to right numbered 1-9 the majority on this case were 1-4 and 6. So it's only one step away from being a fully partisan split.

>"they portray the Justices as partisan hacks"

I leave it up to others to decide whether scoring each justice on a left-to-right continuum is any more nuanced than this.

Additionally, while Gorsuch ruled in favor of Apple, it is clear from oral arguments that Alito/Gorsuch have little respect for the Illinois Brick argument.

While I agree that much of the time they do try to rule based on law, it is clear that precedent is being looked at as mere suggestions by this new court. I wonder what the score will be when the challenges to Roe hit their bench.

That's not something unique about "this new court". The Court has never been all that respectful of precedent. From the Lochner era (reading a right to expansive freedom of contract into the constitution), to the "switch in time that saved nine" (vastly expanding the definition of 'interstate commerce' such that Congress could regulate anything), to the Warren court (which invented whole-cloth a slew of social and criminal justice rights), the Court has often gone in radical new directions and overruled previous decisions.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com