"Liberal" without a context is sort of a dangerous word.
I.E. free market capitalism is in some sense more "Liberal" than centrally planned economies, like what you had in the former Soviet Union.
That having been said you will notice not many "liberals" in this country are advocates of free markets, quite the contrary, actually.
There is "liberal" as in being a proponent of social welfare, and then there's being "liberal" in the sense of being an opponent of authority and in general being told what to do. I like to consider myself liberal in both senses, which is totally self contradictory, but not any more so though than are the stances of "democrats" and republicans" in the broad scheme of American politics.
I agree, it is a very strange decision for a "liberal" supreme court justice to make.
An interesting aside, now let's get back to NG railraods...
Regards,
Trevor H.