Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote nothing when the Supreme Court repudiated the constitutional right to abortion in the Dobbs decision three years ago. She wasn’t obliged to write, of course; it was her vote that counted, the crucial fifth vote that gave Justice Samuel Alito his majority. Still, her silence stood out, and not only because two other members of the majority, Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, wrote concurring opinions to explain their contrasting views of the decision’s larger implications.

I thought at the time that, considering the rushed confirmation in the first Trump administration’s waning weeks that gave her the seat long held by

See Full Page