In the swirling days since what I suppose we should just call The Leak, a significant theme has been the argument that the Supreme Court has grown deeply politicized. But there never existed a golden age when the court was anything else.
To call the court politicized is to make two separate charges: First, that partisans have successfully packed it with those who will vote a particular ideological line; second, that the justices themselves, busily pursuing ideological agendas, consider the political implications of their work.
Neither is new.
Demanding a court full of ideological conformists is a longstanding American tradition. ...