The U.S. Supreme Court term that ended last week offered mixed evidence of whether the justices recognize the importance of acting in a way that combats the corrosive perception that they are partisan "politicians in robes."

Some important decisions broke down along ideological lines, including a troubling ruling by the court's conservative majority on Thursday that could make it harder to enforce the Voting Rights Act and a holding that California's attorney general couldn't require nonprofits to report the names of their major donors.

Yet in other potentially divisive cases the court demonstrated commendable collegiality, compromise and restraint. And despite predictions that then-President Donald Trump's three appointees would slavishly protect his interests, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett did not come to Trump's rescue when frivolous litigation was filed seeking to overturn the election of President Joe Biden.

They also proved capable of making common cause with Democratic appointees in some cases. For instance, Barrett and Kavanaugh joined in a majority opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer, a Bill Clinton appointee, rebuffing the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act. In opposing Barrett's confirmation, Senate Democrats had warned that she would destroy the ACA, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein contending that "health care coverage for millions of Americans is at stake with this nomination."

Another example: All three Democratic appointees signed Chief Justice John Roberts' majority opinion holding that the city of Philadelphia violated the First Amendment when it canceled its contract with a Catholic agency that wouldn't consider same-sex couples as prospective foster parents.

Many feared that the court would use this case to create a major loophole in anti-discrimination laws. But Roberts' opinion was reassuringly narrow and fact-specific in its reasoning. It said that the city violated the Catholic agency's right to the free exercise of religion by not granting it an exception allowed for under the city's policy.

The justices were unanimous in other important decisions. They included a ruling that the NCAA's restrictions on educational benefits for college athletes violated antitrust law and a decision making it harder for police to enter a home without a warrant.

Unfortunately, the quest for consensus went only so far. Last month the conservative majority struck down a California labor law regulation, ruling that agricultural landowners and food processors have a right to keep union organizers off their property. Roberts' majority opinion implausibly labeled the limited access granted to organizers a "physical taking" under the Fifth Amendment.

Then on Thursday, the justices divided in the last two cases they decided this term along both ideological lines and in terms of the party of the presidents who appointed them. The split on the question of donor disclosure for nonprofits is regrettable, but not a substantial threat to the court's reputation.

But the divide between Republican and Democratic appointees in the voting rights case is distressing.

FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE LOS ANGELES TIMES