Wash. Post on the Roberts Court's Second Term

Via Robert Barnes of the Washington Post:

In Second Term, Roberts Court Defines Itself
Many 5 to 4 Decisions Reflect Narrowly Split Court That Leans Conservative

The stage is set in the final days of the Supreme Court's term for the divisions that narrowly but decisively split the justices on social issues to be on full display.

The court has already decided more cases on a 5 to 4 vote this term than in all of last term -- some of them favoring the court's liberal wing, more won by the conservatives. This week, the opportunity is there for the court reconstituted under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to make a bold statement.

The cases remaining concern some of the most divisive of social and policy questions: the use of race in public school admission programs; the constitutionality of advertising restrictions in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act; whether ordinary taxpayers have the right to sue over what they perceive to be violations of the separation of church and state.