April 9 (Bloomberg) -- To be the swing voter, you have to
be willing to swing. In the last three weeks, U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Anthony Kennedy has shown how it’s done.
First he wrote the majority opinion in a landmark 5-4 case
establishing a constitutional right to an adequate lawyer in
plea-bargaining negotiations. Liberals were enthused. Yet in his
tough questioning during the Obamacare arguments, he shook up
the conventional wisdom that mandatory coverage would be upheld
comfortably. Liberals were not enthused. Then, as a coda, he
wrote the majority opinion in a 5-4 case allowing jails to
strip-search anyone being put into the general prison population
-- even without suspicion, and even after the most trivial
misdemeanor arrest. The same liberals who loved him in March are
prepared to loathe him in April.
