Split: Court and state in crisis world

With two incendiary sentences in 24 hours, the US Supreme Court has placed itself at the center of America’s political polarization and raised questions about its own constitutional and democratic legitimacy.

First, on Thursday, judges repealed a 1911 New York state law regulating the carrying of concealed weapons outside the home. Discussing amid growing noise about tighter gun control following the recent mass shootings, they found that in the NYSRPA v. Bruen case, the 111-year-old law violated the right to bear arms enshrined in the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The next day, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, they upheld a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and in the process overturned Roe v.