Flash back to June 2020. The supposedly-conservative 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court, in case after case, swung to the left: McGirt, Mazars, Vance, June Medical, Regents, Bostock, and so on. Things became so bleak I referred to the period as Blue June.
Now, jump forward to June 2022. The expanded 6-3 conservative majority, in case after case, swung to the right: West Virginia, Castro-Huerta, Kennedy, Dobbs, Bruen, Carson, and so on. In my lifetime, I could not recall such a consistent string of decisions that favored conservative jurisprudence. I called the period, fittingly, Red June.
What do I make of June 2023? Well, it is somewhere in between Red June and Blue June. Call it Purple June. There were several significant decisions to the right: 303 Creative, Nebraska, and Students for Fair Admission. (Curiously, all the hard-right decisions came on the last two days of the term–more on timing later.) There were several significant decisions to the left: Moore, Texas, Brackeen, and Milligan. And there were a few significant decisions that are harder to characterize: Groff, Mallory, and Pork Producers. It's a mix.
