WASHINGTON — In what may signal a generational shift in power, new Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. led a confident conservative majority at the Supreme Court this year and moved the law to the right on abortion, religion, campaign funding and racial diversity.
Working with a 5-4 majority, Roberts prevailed in nearly all the major cases.
In just his second term, the 52-year-old chief justice wrested control from the 87-year-old John Paul Stevens, the remaining justice who served on the court during its liberal era. Roberts was able to prevail because of the key votes cast by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., 57, who last year succeeded centrist Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Roberts and Alito were appointed by President Bush.
And though Bush may fall short of creating a permanent GOP political majority in Washington, his selection of the two justices appears to have cemented his legacy of a long-term conservative majority on the high court.
Conservatives saw the rulings as historic and overdue.
"These are the most important decisions on the use of race since Brown vs. Board of Education," said Sharon Browne, a lawyer for the Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento. "The high court has decided correctly that children must not be stereotyped by the color of their skin, but treated as individuals."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) saw the campaign funding decision as "a victory for the 1st Amendment and political debate."
Liberals, including some on the high court, sounded an alarm.
"It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much," Justice Stephen G. Breyer, 68, said in the courtroom on the final day of the term.
Said Steven R. Shapiro, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union: "The Roberts court has moved with lightning speed to roll back fundamental rights. Having begun with a promise to respect precedent and seek consensus, the Roberts court has so far done neither."
Several Democratic presidential candidates have said the court is emerging as a major issue in the next election. The two most senior justices -- Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 74 -- are its steadiest liberals. They will probably be replaced by the next president.
Roberts and Alito probably have at least two decades ahead of them, along with like-minded conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, 59.
