(Originally published by The New York Times on July 12, 2023)

Add this to the ways in which the Supreme Court is increasingly resembling just another political institution: Only one side of the ideological divide has the power to set the institution’s agenda.

This is a little-recognized, but highly significant, feature of the current 6-3 alignment of justices. Under longstanding tradition, it takes four votes to put a case on the court’s docket, the so-called rule of four. Not five, mind you, not a majority. But it does take four. And the Democratic appointees now seem to find themselves one vote short in case after case.

(Continue reading the opinion essay on The New York Times’ page here)