Gary V. Powell, Author

Today begins the new session of the Supreme Court. I'm tracking important cases on my Supreme Court blog, First Monday, which can be found on this site.

The new session begins in the shadow of recent books by Justices including a new one by Justice Thomas and about the Court including Jeffrey Toobin's book "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court."

As reported yesterday in the New York Times, the current court is about as divided and politicized as any court in history. On the conservative side are Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas. On the other side are Ginsburg, Stevens, Souter, and Breyer. Kennedy is the likely swing vote in many cases. 

This is an oversimplification, but it's true that the last term saw a significant number of 5-4 decisions on major issues with the conservatives almost always voting as a block.

What is also true is that the Conservative Block clearly has a political agenda and is adept at thinly masking its agenda with what appear to be well-reasoned legal opinions. Furthermore, for a group of conservatives, who are traditionally opposed to "judicial activism," the Roberts' Court seems more than willing to tackle big issues like "balance of power" and abortion.

It's going to be an interesting session.