High court conservatives target O’Connor, Kennedy opinions

By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — For years the Supreme Court moved to the left or right only as far as Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy allowed. They held pivotal votes on a court closely divided between liberals and conservatives. Now, though, a more conservative court that includes two men who once worked for Kennedy is taking direct aim at major opinions written by the two justices, now retired. The court already was weighing a dramatic rollback of abortion rights when last week, it added cases that could end the use of race in college admissions and limit the reach of the nation’s main water pollution law.