The Beauty of an Eight-Justice Supreme Court

What would the Supreme Court look like if ideology didn’t matter? We’re finding out this term. Since Justice Antonin Scalia's death in February, it's impossible for the court to land on its common 5-4 split. Now the justices -- and we -- can pay close attention to cases where the vote breakdown is much harder to explain. A case in point is Thursday’s decision clarifying what kind of “aggravated felony” can get an immigrant deported.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote for a majority of five that included two liberals and three conservatives. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who has emerged this term as the court’s most liberal member, wrote a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, the most conservative -- and Justice Stephen Breyer, the court’s resident pragmatist, whose vote here is almost incomprehensible.