Supreme Court: The Justices Handle Heavy Caseload Without Succumbing to Activism

Before it recessed for the Christmas holidays, the Supreme Court had handed down 11 full-blown opinions and disposed of hundreds of cases with summary orders. As an old trend-spotter, I venture this observation: There are no trends to spot. The high court rocks . along as smoothly as those famous crewmen of the children’s round, who rowed, rowed, rowed their boat gently down the stream. The 1980-81 term saw no great leaps in the law. Nothing thus far in the new term suggests a lust for judicial innovation. The only difference in the present term lies in the presence on the bench of Justice Sandra .Day O’Connor, whose destiny is to go through life forever . hearing herself introduced as the first woman ever to be appointed, etc., etc. She has slipped into the life of the court as easily as a fireman slips into his boots. She has not hesitated to ask questions from the bench. She speaks her mind at the court’s weekly conferences. By every account she is a charming woman, but she is also a justice. She expects, and she gets, the same respect the others get; As Ronald Reagan’s first nominee, it was generally expected – hoped, perhaps – that Justice O’Connor would join the court’s conservative bloc. It hasn’t worked out quite that way, though the evidence is inconclusive. Mrs. O’Connor has participated in nine of the 11 plenary cases; she dissented from the majority’s reasoning in four of them. As a dissenter, she has sided with the liberals three times, the conservatives only once.