A Typology of Supreme Court Justices

A reader asked me to sketch out their differences and similarities, so here goes -- along with some statistics that help tease out what's going on.

Last term, the one that ended in June, was when the much-longed-for (or -feared) conservative Supreme Court majority coalesced. After many false starts, misfires, and disappointments, conservatives will remember the term as the one when they finally, finally, had enough votes to overcome “defections.”

This isn’t about gut feelings or reactions to the hig…