
It's not every day that you find U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor in agreement about the destructive legacy of one of the Supreme Court's own precedents. But such an agreement was on prominent display earlier this week.
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to take up a case known as Beck v. United States. It arose in 2021 after an off-duty Air Force staff sergeant named Cameron Beck was killed while riding his motorcycle in Missouri. Beck was fatally struck by a government-issued van driven by a civilian federal employee. That driver later pleaded guilty to criminal negligence.