The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that COPA (the anti-pr0n act) may be unconstitutional and sent it back to lower courts for further review, while preventing its implementation. This is a fairly important first amendment ruling.
The stunning part is how the votes fell. A 5-4 or 6-3 decision was highly probable. I'd have guessed that it would be a 5-4 decision with Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg and Stevens voting to strike down, Rhenquist, Scalia, Thomas (aka Scalia Jr.) and Breyer voting to uphold and O'Connor casting the swing vote (she can be VERY hard to read at times.)
The actual vote:
Strike down/remand to lower court:
Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, Stevens and Thomas!!11!!!!11!!
Uphold:
Rhenquist, Scalia, Breyer, O'Connor
I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen Thomas disagree with Scalia, and one of those was concurring but going even further. I'm absolutely stunned by this.
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