There are certain geopolitical events that are generation-defining. In my lifetime, I think they would be the fall of the Soviet Union, 9/11, the election of President Obama, the election of President Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic, and January 6. For earlier generations, they would have been Watergate, the moon landing, the Kennedy assassination, Pearl Harbor, and so on. These are moments in time that everyone remembers where they were when they happened, and after they occur, people say things will always be different.
The Supreme Court, as a continuous institution, invariably had to discuss these epochal events in one form or another. Two cases decided this term provide a glimpse at how the Court, and indeed how history, will view the COVID-19 pandemic and January 6. In both Murthy v. Missouri and Fischer v. United States, the Court nonchalantly refers to each incident.
During the height of the pandemic, Justice Breyer would trot out statistics about how many people might die without various safety protocols. But in Murthy, Justice Barrett's majority opinion barely mentions why the Biden Administration was leaning on social media companies to suppress certain messages. Even though Justice Barrett was not particularly sympathetic to the First Amendment claim, I get the distinct sense that she thought the government's actions were imprudent–especially with the benefit of hindsight. (We all remember how many people were wearing masks during her Rose Garden ceremony.)
