According to EXPERT: The idea that the Supreme Court is Conservative Leaning is a 'fallacy'

When the Supreme Court upheld President Obama's health care law by the slimmest of margins in 2012, conservatives blasted Chief Justice John Roberts' majority opinion and accused the court of abandoning its principles.

But when the court gave same-sex marriage the green light across major sections of the country last week, the battle cry from conservatives was muted at best.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy,
along with other members of the Supreme Court, attend a
State of the Union address in 2013.(Getty Images)

The difference reflects a realization on the part of conservatives: The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts, despite having five members named by Republican presidents, cannot be counted on to reflect conservative views. That's particularly true on issues affecting gays and lesbians, when Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's swing vote, holds sway.

"This isn't the Roberts court. This is the Kennedy court," said Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. "The idea that this is a conservative court is a fallacy."

Kennedy's Court?

Those low expectations prompted many of the nation's leading conservative legal theorists to accept the court's action last Monday, when it denied officials in five states the opportunity to appeal lower court decisions striking down same-sex marriage bans. The denial affected six other states as well, raising to 30 the number of states with controlling court opinions upholding the right to same-sex marriage.

Had they voted to hear one or more cases, only to have gay marriage declared constitutional nationwide on a likely 5-4 vote, the result could have been worse, many conservatives acknowledged.

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