Sandy II

Justice Kennedy has taken Sandra Day O'Connor's old spot as the ideological center of the court. While he's still firmly in the conservative column, he likes to write opinions that split the difference.

His latest opus is Rapanos. Both right and left were hoping for a bright line interpretation of the Clean Water Act. Instead, we have a wishy-washy "significant nexus" standard for wetlands that guarantees a lot more litigation.

Why not just say it doesn't matter since he expects the problem will go away in 25 years?