No they weren’t… They were derided as conservative power grabs then as now. Even then they talked about Roberts as an activist conservative, as the “decider” vote in a 5v4 court, who played politics to maintain the appearance of neutrality on unimportant, to them, decisions so they could strike when it mattered.

Hell, even then mass media referred to “conservative” and “liberal” justices, which clearly shows judges were not neutral.