BLOOMBERG – A U.S. Supreme Court term that set a modern record for consensus laid the groundwork for divisive showdowns ahead.
The justices this week closed a nine-month term in which 65 percent of the rulings were unanimous — the highest in decades, according to Tom Goldstein, the founder of the court-tracking website Scotusblog. The court voted 9-0 to resolve weighty cases on presidential appointments, mobile-phone privacy, abortion protests, congressional power and shareholder lawsuits.
That surface harmony failed to mask the chasms on the nine-member court. Justice Antonin Scalia blasted the reasoning in the abortion and appointments rulings. And justices across the court sparred — at times in personal terms — over campaign-finance limits, affirmative action and religious rights.
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