Another term of the US Supreme Court has come and gone and, as I have for years, I will encapsulate it in this blog. Welcome to the discussion of this and the following three posts. This term began in the midst of the Presidential election campaign, last October, only two weeks after the demise of Justice Ginsburg, only one week after the confirmation of her successor, Amy Coney Barrett. This was an extraordinary political context. It was almost as if the Republican leadership in the US Senate, which four years before had loudly announced its devotion to the principle that the Senate should not deliberate on a Supreme Court vacancy during an election year, regardless of who might be helped or hurt by that deliberation ("keep this tape"!), had been acting hypocritically and opportunistically in making those solemn avowals. Ah, what an unfortunate appearance. Also, we saw that this Supreme Court, with Justice Barrett on board, steadfastly refused to be drawn ...