2022-2023 Term Reflections [TEASER]

And because both cars were made by GM,

were both cars available in metallic mint green paint?

They were.

Thank you, Ms.

Vito.

No more questions.

Thank you very, very much.

You've been a lovely, lovely witness.

Hey, everyone.

This is Leon from Fiasco and Prologue Projects.

On this episode of 5-4, Peter, Rhiannon, and Michael are reflecting on the past year's term at the Supreme Court.

It's been a year of big wins for the right, with the court rejecting President Biden's student loan forgiveness program and creating a new, legal way to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

But the spotlight has also been on the court in a way it hasn't been before.

with reporters turning up unethical and illegal activities by the justices.

Meanwhile, Congress has shown little to no appetite for restraining the court, meaning meaning this podcast will continue to have a reason to exist at least into the next term.

This is 5-4, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.

Welcome to 5-4, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have tanked our nation's brand, like Elon Musk tanking Twitter's when he turned it into X.com.

When he turned it into something else.

I'm Peter.

I'm here with Rhiannon.

Hey, hello.

And Michael.

Hey, everybody.

Did you see that the logo is literally just like a basic publicly available font?

Yeah.

Incredible.

Genius.

This is genius at work.

It's like the papyrus SNL skit, but like for real.

Right, right.

Right.

The things that he thinks are cool are things that teenage boys think are cool.

And it's like, that's it.

Like the letter X.

Like, you know, he designs cars that look like the dumbest shit ever.

Cyber truck.

Yeah.

Like when I was in fourth grade, I would try to like design cars.

And like so with my friends, right?

You just like draw the dumbest fucking thing that looked like a rocket ship.

And I was like,

yes, this is sick.

And that's what Elon's doing, except he has enough money to make it a reality.

And actual teenage boys are looking at it like, that is cool.

Yeah.

Anyway, we're back.

Yes.

We're back after a short break.

And we're going to take this opportunity to reflect on the term.

Reflect on what is going on at the Supreme Court.

We've done a few cases from this term already.

We will do a few more in the future.

Yeah.

But for now, we want to talk big picture.

You know, what sort of themes are we seeing?

How did this term make us feel?

Let's hop on the therapist's couch and get it out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm going to kick things off with a rant.

that probably fits better at the end of an episode, but go off.

Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah.

So the legal media is in a constant cycle of trying to characterize and recharacterize the Supreme Court based on whatever has happened most recently.

A couple of years ago, the court had a slightly more moderated term.

The narrative was that they were divided 333 between liberal, moderate, and conservative blocs.

And the next year we had Dobbs and Bruin.

And suddenly the narrative was a conservative court, Roberts has lost control.

And this is the output of a media apparatus that lacks object permanence.

And it's sort of continuing now.

You see the same pitter pattern.

The legal media is trying to extrapolate from what happened this term to pull out some overarching narrative about what's happening at the court.

The conservative bloc didn't get everything they wanted on voting rights.

They hedged in some cases, but they limited environmental regulations.

They struck down affirmative action, struck down student loan forgiveness, damaged LGBT rights.

So

how far to the right are they?

Are Kavanaugh and Barrett moderating?

Is John Roberts in control?

My response to all of this is

calm the fuck down.

You know?

Hey, folks, if you want to hear the rest of this episode, you're going to have to subscribe.

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