In a Polarized Court, Getting the Last Word

[I]A few times a year, Supreme Court justices go out of their way to emphasize their unhappiness by reading a dissent from the bench out loud, supplementing the dry reason on the page with vivid tones of sarcasm, regret, anger and disdain. The practice is on the rise, and it is suggestive of an increasingly polarized court.

�Dissenting from the bench,� a new study to be published in Justice System Journal contends, is a sort of nuclear option that �may indicate that bargaining and accommodation have broken down irreparably.�



To me this indicates that the Supreme Court is now ruling increasingly along conservative/liberal lines, instead of on the merits of the cases.