Balls & Strikes Editor-in-Chief Jay Willis wants to set the record straight: the Supreme Court’s conservative makeup is nothing new. Talking to host Molly Jong-Fast on this bonus episode of The New Abnormal, Willis says the high court has been a conservative institution since the late 1960s.
“There’s sort of this popular conception of the court is fairly balanced... for decades, there was a liberal wing and a conservative wing and then a so-called swing justice,” he explains.
“It was Sandra Day O’Connor then it was Anthony Kennedy, but Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy were both Republican appointees, both conservatives. So at all times the court has leaned conservative. And then obviously since Anthony Kennedy was replaced with your good friend and mine, Brett Kavanaugh, that entire model has been out the window.”