Happy Tuesday/end of February, readers! Two months ago, I was screaming a countdown at my friends' house and now I'm looking for my allergy medicine so I can be prepared when pollen attacks.
This past week, I've been thinking about courts and how they shape our lives. Every year, the Supreme Court has a surge of popular interest between late-May and mid-June as major decisions get released toward the end of the court term. But those decisions are made months in advance. By the time we the people can truly reckon with what's happening, the term is done and the justices are sipping daiquiris on a beach somewhere.
Take last year's infamous Dobbs v. Jackson decision. The case was argued in December 2021. The draft of the decision was leaked on May 2, and the official decision came almost two months later on June 24. When that decision leaked, it was basically set in stone. None of the justices switched sides between the leak and the official opinion. The members of this unaccountable institution got to kick over decades reproductive autonomy for millions like a toddler destroying a tower of blocks. Eight months later, and we're still working through the rubble.
With that in mind, I curated this week's newsletter with an eye toward the courts. Not just the capital-C Court, but all of the institutions on federal, state and local levels that feed into it like tributaries into a river.
Hope you have your waders on because it can get murky fast.
