It's Still Kennedy's Court, Say Supreme Court Practitioners

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For all the talk of Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. slowly guiding it rightward, the Supreme Court still belongs to Justice Anthony Kennedy.

That was the consensus this afternoon among a panel of the country's top Supreme Court advocates, hosted at the Georgetown University Law Center by Legal Times and The National Law Journal.

The panel, moderated by the NLJ's own Tony Mauro, touched on topics ranging from life at the Solicitor General’s Office, where panel member Neal Katyal recently became deputy solicitor general, to the departure of Justice David Souter.

When it came to the topic of which justice dominated the court this term, the group was totally in concert.

Roberts and his fellow conservatives are "going just as far to the right, and just as fast, as Justice Kennedy will let them," said Pamela Harris, executive director of Georgetown’s Supreme Court Institute, who while of counsel at O'Melveny & Myers this year argued the First Amendment case Pleasant Grove City v. Summum.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/07/its-still-kennedys-court-say-supreme-court-practitioners.html