The Supreme Court is becoming more conservative

In the five years Chief Justice John G. Roberts has sat on the Supreme Court, the court has not only moved to the right but also become the most conservative one in living memory.

If the Roberts court continues on this course, it will allow a greater role for religion in public life, corporations in elections, and guns in our lives. Abortion rights, affirmative action, and protections for people accused of crimes will be curtailed.

In its first five years, the Roberts court issued conservative decisions 58 percent of the time. And in the term ending a year ago, the rate rose to 65 percent, the highest number in any year since at least 1953.

Four of the six most conservative justices of the 44 who have sat on the court since 1937 are serving now: Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Antonin Scalia and, most conservative of all, Clarence Thomas. (The other two were Chief Justices Burger and Rehnquist.) Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the swing justice on the current court, is in the top 10. The Roberts court is finding laws unconstitutional and reversing precedent. the ideological direction of the court’s activism has undergone a marked change toward conservative results.

As a personal injury trial attorney, the decisions handed down by the Supreme Court affect my clients’ rights as well as the future of this great country. A Supreme Court that is overly conservative or overly liberal could make politically biased, outcome-determinitive decisions that would be potentially harmful to our country.

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