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Court watchers say these signals can be read as an open call for lawsuits that would tee up the legal issues for the 6-3 conservative majority court to decide.
“Justices have long used public statements or published opinions to invite litigation or legislative reform,” said Robert Tsai, a constitutional law professor at Boston University. “It reminds us that they are part of the political community and that the modern Supreme Court is not simply a neutral institution but one that participates in determining the nation’s values.”
It’s unclear the degree to which politics or public opinion may have motivated the conservative trio to publicly state their interest in legal issues underlying these hot-button topics, and they did not explicitly say how they would rule in potential disputes.