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WASHINGTON — There seems to be a new Supreme Court in town.

Last week's ruling banning partial-birth abortions, revealed it. Coming up next, campaign reform will further clarify how President Bush's conservative appointments and the departure of former Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor have reshaped the court.

"There's a seismic shift taking place," said Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice. "(The justices) have done nothing to disappoint President Bush."

On Wednesday, the court returns to a campaign-reform battleground last visited in 2004 when O'Connor was still serving on the bench. At that time, the centrist O'Connor was crucial in upholding the McCain-Feingold law, which restricted pre-election ads funded by unions and corporations.

Now, Wisconsin Right to Life is challenging those advertising restrictions as an infringement on free speech. Oral arguments Wednesday will give O'Connor's replacement, Associate Justice Samuel Alito Jr., a chance to tip his hand.

Although some of Alito's conservative allies denounce campaign-finance-law changes that appear to restrict political speech, his own views are unknown.

The phrase "campaign finance" only appears once in the 1,598-page transcript of Alito's Senate confirmation hearings in January 2006. The word "abortion," by contrast, appears 152 times.

"I have no idea where Justice Alito stands," said attorney Eric Jaffe, who wrote an amicus brief on behalf of the Cato Institute and other groups opposed to ad restrictions.

Already, Alito has shown what new faces can mean on a nine-member court.

Last Wednesday, Alito joined the narrow 5-4 majority upholding a federal ban on partial birth abortions. The decision contrasted with a 2000 case, in which O'Connor supported a 5-4 majority striking down Nebraska's ban on the procedure.

Chief Justice John Roberts, Bush's other Supreme Court pick, likewise buttressed last week's majority opinion restricting abortions. Roberts replaced the late conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Strictly in terms of vote counting, that is not as marked a change as the O'Connor-to-Alito shift.

Unanimity is out of the question in the campaign-reform case. It is sure to involve a strange-bedfellows cast of characters.

The Alliance for Justice, which denounced the partial-birth abortion ruling, is nonetheless allied with the anti-abortion Wisconsin Right to Life, the American Civil Liberties Union and wildly diverse other interest groups in challenging the campaign advertising restrictions.

Under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, unions and corporations cannot use corporate funds to pay for ads targeting specific candidates within 30 days of a primary election and 60 days before a general election.

"Congress (has a) compelling interest in preventing corporations and unions from undermining the integrity of elections through the corrosive and distorting effects of wealth accumulated with the help of the corporate form," Republican Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a sponsor of the law, and his allies declared in a legal brief opposing the right-to-life group.

In 2004, the Federal Election Commission cited the law in blocking ads prepared by Wisconsin Right to Life. The ads urged voters to contact Wisconsin's two Democratic senators and oppose any filibuster of President Bush's judicial nominees.

Although the Supreme Court in 2004 upheld the overall McCain-Feingold law, the Wisconsin case challenges how the law has been applied.