Liberal vs. Conservative

Most conservatives see the opening on the Supreme Court left by retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as a chance to pull the court farther to the right and avoid the frequent 5 - 4 rulings that went against them with O'Connor as the swing vote. Jonathan Rauch writing in the National Journal describes Cass R. Sunstein's theories put forth in his book Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts Are Wrong for America, which a slightly more nuanced view of the positions held by the court members, holding that conservative and liberal do not apply once you are on the court. Sunstein lays out four different philosophies:

• Perfectionism
  
• Majoritarianism
  
• Minimalism
  
• Fundamentalism (Originalism)
  

He goes further into describing what each type means. The book title is off-putting, but his ideas about this sound right. Rauch guesses that Roberts is a minimalist.