The Supreme Court’s stealth hard-liner.

[Sam Spade]

Some parts of the article I agree with, others are way off base.

The issue, as I have said before, is that Roberts is winning Kennedy over to his side 80%-85% of the time, if not more.  If Obama doesn't pick someone who can correct that (i.e. a master at persuasion from the center or center-left), it's going to be curtains for the left in the USSC for the next 10-15 years unless one of the five righties kicks the bucket.

If Obama picks an abrasive ideologue, it could well cement Kennedy within Roberts wing, much as Scalia and Thomas drove him to the wings of O'Connor and even Stevens and Souter during the late 1990s and early part of this decade.

Part of the reason why this is occurring is because, judicially, Kennedy is a conservative, much more in line with Roberts thinking than Scalia or Thomas originalism.

My own personal viewpoint of judicial thinking runs more alongside Scalia/Thomas originalism, because I consider it more intellectually coherent.

But even I'll acknowledge that Roberts is one of the smartest people put on this court in a long, long while and will likely make a lasting impact judicially far beyond any of the recent justices, with the possible exception of Scalia (whose impact on statutory interpretation in the last 20 years is probably the most important change in judicial thinking of our time).  The reason why Roberts could be such is because he's not abrasive like Scalia and is rather interested in winning you over (like Warren was, for example).  Yes, I know, Kennedy has control of the court and what-not.  But his opinions are rather shallow (imho) and I doubt will have much impact after he leaves.