ANALYSIS-US Supreme Court: Bush gun rights win, Guantanamo loss

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON, June 27 (Reuters) - The just-ended U.S. Supreme Court term gave President George W. Bush a historic victory on gun rights for Americans but handed him a bitter defeat on his war on terrorism policy regarding Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

As those two landmark 5-4 rulings illustrated, the nation's highest court remained closely divided between conservative and liberal factions, with Justice Anthony Kennedy often casting the decisive vote in the most important cases.

The court, in an opinion by Kennedy, outlawed the death penalty for child rapists. But in an earlier ruling it upheld the three-drug cocktail commonly used for lethal injections, ending a temporary nationwide moratorium on executions.

The court limited some securities fraud lawsuits and slashed the punitive damages that ExxonMobil Corp must pay for the 1989 oil spill off Alaska, but issued a series of pro-employee rulings on workplace discrimination.

Legal experts said the court under Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed by Bush, still had an overall conservative bent in the 2007-08 term that ended on Thursday.

"We are still learning the personality of the Roberts court," said Steven Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Last term, the court launched an aggressive assault on core principles affecting race and abortion.

"This term, the court generally spoke with a softer voice," he said. "Even when speaking softly, however, the court's instincts remain fundamentally conservative on most issues."

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