By Melissa Murray

Dear Listener,

It’s July—the time of year where veteran Supreme Court watchers sit back and take stock of the Court’s most recent term and look ahead to the upcoming term.  In October 2020, at the beginning of the term, many commentators, including myself, advised the public to brace for impact.  With the replacement of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett, the Court’s conservative wing now had 6 votes—a super-majority that could accelerate the Court’s rightward drift.  With challenges to the Affordable Care Act, voting rights, and LGBTQ+ rights on the docket, this new 6-3 conservative super-majority could flex its considerable muscle in ways that would have seismic consequences for the law and our lives.  And, if the Court’s changed composition wasn’t enough, a presidential election loomed, raising the possibility that the Court would be called upon, as it was in 2000, to decide an election-related dispute, and by extension, the presidency.  

So, here we are, in July, with another Supreme Court term in the rearview mirror.  What should we make of October Term 2020?  Were the pundits right?  Did we witness a hyper-conservative Court making seismic changes to the law?