On The Atlantic’s blog, Stuart Taylor disputes the liberal claim that we have a conservative Supreme Court:

[I]t is possible to measure whether, as Democrats claim, the court is “conservative” in the sense of being to the right of center of public opinion. The court has clearly become more conservative than it was since Justice Samuel Alito replaced Sandra Day O’Connor in 2006. But historical consensus and, more recently, national polls show that the justices have not been consistently to the right of center since 1937.
Indeed, since the 1970s they have strayed more often to the left than to the right. The four liberals and Kennedy remain left of center on issues including abortion, religion, the death penalty, and gay rights and close to the center on racial preferences and gun rights. So it should be no surprise that a Gallup Poll in early May found that 42 percent of respondents wanted a nominee who would make the court more conservative — and only 27 percent wanted a nominee who would make it more liberal.
What about Leahy’s mantra that the court “always seems to side with the big corporate interests against the average American”? Make that “sometimes.” In “Court Defies Pro-Business Label,” a March 8, 2009 Washington Post article, reporter Robert Barnes stressed a recent decision exposing pharmaceutical companies’ to state court lawsuits even when they comply with federal safety rules. He also noted that since the May 2007 Ledbetter decision, “the court has consistently sided with employees who have alleged discrimination.”