An Early Review of the Roberts Court

There's an AP story out there asking why the Roberts court has resolved several potentially divisive cases on narrow grounds and by unanimous vote (such as the Ayotte abortion case). The article poses the question of whether this phenomenon is due to a temporary period of transition caused by the recent turnover of justices or represents a more permanent, more consensus-based mode of operation on the Court.

The short and correct answer is that it's too early to tell: the Alito nomination process has just finished and Roberts is still getting his feet wet on the court. Still, it will be interesting to see how Roberts' self-announced values of judicial modesty manifest themselves when the Court faces hard questions it cannot procedurally avoid.