It's axiomatic that believing everything you hear on television is unwise. This outlook is especially useful today, because it's equally axiomatic among those who write and produce television news that today's Supreme Court has been hijacked by conservative ideologues, a claim supported by neither history nor common sense. Before the High Court handed down its decision in the landmark Michigan affirmative action case, the evening news anchors sounded this refrain over and over again. We will hear it once more before the decision in the Pledge of Allegiance case is announced. The assumption of Rehnquist Court conservatism also prefigures much...