The Roberts effect?
Supreme Court: Some believe new chief justice John Roberts is ushering in a new era of collegiality on the Supreme Court
Lynn Vincent

From a court where intellectual harmony in recent decades could be measured on a range from fractured to feuding, an intriguing unanimity suddenly is springing forth. In Rumsfeld v. FAIR, the court on March 6 unanimously rejected the claim of some liberal law schools that having to choose between forgoing certain federal funds and allowing military recruiters on campus violated the schools' free speech rights. Writing his first high court opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that FAIR had "attempted to stretch a number of First Amendment doctrines" and, in trying to "cast themselves as just like" schoolchildren and the Boy Scouts (litigants who had previously prevailed in high court free-speech claims), had exaggerated the reach of First Amendment precedents.

Only the latest in a string of unanimous opinions, the Rumsfeld ruling sparked discussion: Is Justice Roberts ushering in a new era of collegiality on the court? The rest