OpinionJournal - Swing Justice

Justice Anthony Kennedy of SCOTUS doesn't appreciate the editorial attention he's gotten lately. Well, too bad, as The Wall Street Journal says. If you're going to be a swing vote, then it's one thing to do it because you don't buy into anyone's pre-packaged deal. It's quite another when you rule one way on one case and another way on another case, according to nothing but whim--or, as the Journal so aptly put it, make yourself "open for intellectual rent." Result: you don't please anybody.

On the other hand, the best attitude that any Justice can take is not to care what others think. But if you don't really know what to think yourself, you rely on others to think for you. That's Kennedy's problem.