In a Volatile Term, a Fractured Supreme Court Remade America

Former President Donald J.Trump had a very good year at the Supreme Court.

On Monday, the court ruled that he is substantially immune from prosecution on charges that he tried to subvert the 2020 election.On Friday, the court cast doubt on two of the four charges against him in what remains of that prosecution.

And in March, the justices allowed him to seek another term despite a constitutional provision barring insurrectionists from holding office.Administrative agencies had a horrible term.In three 6-to-3 rulings along ideological lines, the court’s conservative supermajority erased a foundational precedent that had required courts to defer to agency expertise, dramatically lengthened the time available to challenge agencies’ actions and torpedoed the administrative tribunals in which the Securities and Exchange Commission brings enforcement actions.The court itself had a volatile term, taking on a stunning array of major disputes and assuming a commanding role in shaping American society and democracy.

If the justices felt chastened by the backlash over their 2022 abortion decision, the persistent questions about their ethical standards and the drop in their public approval, there were only glimmers of restraint, notably in ducking two abortion cases in an election year.The court was divided 6 to 3 along partisan lines not only in Monday’s decision on Mr.Trump’s immunity and the three cases on agency power, but also in a run of major cases on homelessness, voting rights, guns and public corruption.An unusually high proportion of divided decisions in argued cases — more than two-thirds — were decided by 6-to-3 votes.

But only half of those decisions featured the most common split, with the six Republican appointees in the majority and the three Democratic ones in dissent....