This decision, Ramos v. Louisiana, is in fact one of the most fascinating Supreme Court products I’ve seen in a long time, and one of the most revealing. Below the surface of its 6-to-3 outcome lies a maelstrom of clashing agendas having little to do with the question ostensibly at hand and a great deal to do with the court’s future. Peek under the hood and see a Supreme Court in crisis.

Consider that it took nearly seven months from the argument last October for the justices to come up with something they were willing to send out into the world: five separate opinions, a total of 83 pages, to answer the straightforward question presented by Evangelisto Ramos’s petition: “Whether the Fourteenth Amendment fully incorporates the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a unanimous verdict.” (“Incorporates” refers to the ongoing process of applying the guarantees of the Bill of Rights — which by their terms apply only to Congress — to the states.)