Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac 2009

The biggest surprise from the Supreme Court term that just ended: Barack Obama hearts the Roberts court. At the end of June, the Democratic candidate praised Justice Antonin Scalia’s 5–4 decision striking down the Washington ban on handgun possession, a ruling that recognizes the right to bear arms as an individual right. Two weeks earlier, from the other side of the ideological spectrum, Obama praised Justice Anthony Kennedy’s 5–4 decision allowing enemy combatants to challenge their detentions in federal courts, a rebuke to the Bush administration’s policies toward Guantánamo detainees. Obama’s only major quarrel with the court was the 5–4 decision banning the execution of people who rape children: he said he has long believed that “the most egregious of crimes” deserve the death penalty. When a leading Democrat is criticizing the Supreme Court for not being conservative enough, it’s time for liberals to breathe a sigh of relief.