I called up Slates Mark Joseph Stern because I needed someone, anyone, to explain what exactly

happened at the Supreme Court this term.

Some very bad things just happened, Mary.

Like after some consensus for a couple weeks, it all blew up in a bad way.

In a two-day span, the justices most likely killed affirmative action, put a stake through

the heart of the president's plan for student debt relief, and made the case that discriminating

against gay Americans was okay.

And reading their opinions, it was clear these justices had words for each other.

At the end of the term, all of this got so heated and scathing and it reminds me of 2012,

actually, which was when the first Obamacare decision came down.

And it was so clear that the justices all hated each other.

Robert's famously equipped, he was going to Malta so that he could be on an impregnable

island fortress.

It kind of feels like that again now.

The strange thing, from afar, is that before this past week, it really seemed like the

justices were building interesting coalitions on the bench.

The executives and liberals united to defend the Voting Rights Act and ruled in favor of

Indigenous Americans.

The mark says, to understand the Supreme Court right now, you need to understand who exactly

is at the center of it.

Looking back over coverage from, I don't know, like a year ago, I think there's a lot

of talk that the Chief Justice John Roberts was being sidelined a bit at the court.

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