WHATEVER TONY SAYS IT DOES:

Robert's Supreme Court is a conservative's dream (Linda Greenhouse, July 1, 2007, NY Times)

Of the ideological cases decided this term, the conservative majority, led by Roberts and joined by justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr., prevailed in 13. The court's increasingly marginalized liberals - justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer - prevailed in only six, including the four Texas death penalty cases.

The difference depended on how Justice Anthony Kennedy voted.

Remarkably, he was in the majority in all 24 of the 5-4 cases. In the 68 cases the court decided by signed opinions, Kennedy dissented only twice.

The statistics underscore what case after case demonstrated as the term unfolded: Kennedy's role in the position that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor once held at the court's center of gravity. "Kennedy is very much the median justice now, as Justice O'Connor was, and he is to her right," said Steven Calabresi, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law.

Calabresi, a former law clerk to Scalia and a founder of the Federalist Society, added: "Clearly the court has moved in a direction that leaves most conservatives pleased."