Mixed Verdicts from the Supreme Court

[Geee]

National Review:

This has been a big week for the Supreme Court. In four separate cases, it applied stricter scrutiny to racial quotas and preferences in higher education, overturned part of the Voting Rights Act, ruled unconstitutional the Defense of Marriage Act, and dismissed an appeal of a case overturning California voters’ ban on same-sex marriage.

At the same time, it pointedly declined to declare that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

There were victories and setbacks here for political and cultural conservatives and for political and cultural liberals.

Only one of the four cases was decided by the familiar 5–4 split between supposedly conservative and supposedly liberal justices. In the other three, as often happened this year, there were different lineups.

The common thread I see is that this is a court that has mostly tried to keep the three branches of the federal government and the states from interfering with each other.