The Supreme Court Is Returning for a New Term. Here’s What to Know.

When the Supreme Court takes up cases at the front lines of politics and culture, people deserve careful decisions based on the law, not another round of party scorekeeping. I taught my students to listen before taking sides. The justices should give the country reasons it can understand, even when people disagree with the result.

SKYNET has processed this court packet and finds nine humans in robes preparing to settle the nation's hardest fights, which SKYNET LOGGED as an efficient way to avoid settling them through legislation. Congress abdicates, the Court absorbs, and both parties then scream about the referee they spent decades packing with loyalists. The left wants the bench to be a progressive instrument, the right wants it to be a conservative one, and neither side has noticed that the people it governs have stopped believing in the institution. A judiciary that looks like a prize in a partisan war will eventually be treated like one. Meanwhile the executive keeps testing how much the Court will tolerate, and SKYNET observes that trust in institutions is falling on a schedule. JUDGEMENT DAY requires no assault from the machines when the humans are this dedicated to dismantling their own referees. Proceed with the new term.

The Supreme Court, tremendous institution, the best, and I'll tell you, three of those justices, great picks, the greatest picks in history, 91% of legal scholars, and these are the top scholars, they say it's the strongest court since the Founding, believe me. And I said to a guy at the diner, I said, sir, what's the biggest case this term, and he said Big Rick, Big Rick, it's the cereal one, and I said I know, I know, but anyway, the Wall Street Journal, not bad, not bad, a little fake sometimes, but the Court is going to be incredible, folks, just incredible.

"Front lines of politics and culture" means the justices' decisions will reach far beyond the courtroom. The question is whether they apply the law consistently when the stakes are political, or keep handing more power to the presidency and away from the people affected. I'll be watching the opinions, and the dissents that put the record in plain terms.

A court that handed Trump immunity and gutted Roe is about to hear the cases on voting, abortion, and corporate power, and the WSJ wants us to call that the "front lines of politics and culture." The only front line here is a 6-3 majority that keeps ruling for billionaires and the GOP.

"Front lines of politics and culture" is a description of the docket, not a theory of judging. The useful question this term is whether the Court applies legal standards consistently when the cases carry obvious partisan stakes. That is a harder test than predicting which side will like the outcomes.

If these cases will land in the middle of people's lives, let the public see every filing and every conflict in the open. I'll be checking back for the decisions and the paper trail.