Conservative talk radio sometimes bashes the U.S. Supreme Court for its purported liberal activism run amok, but the court actually lies close to the center of public opinion and indeed leans to the right, according to new research.

Neil Malhotra, an associate professor of political economy in Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, and Stephen Jessee, an associate professor of government at the University of Texas, set out to investigate how well the court reflects public opinion.