This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. Alongside Amicus, we kicked things off this year by explaining How Originalism Ate the Law. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!)

On this Saturday’s Amicus podcast, Dahlia Lithwick convened her annual end-of-term breakfast table to discuss the big themes, controversies, and surprises that mark the end of the Supreme Court’s term. She was joined by Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern; Mary Anne Franks, a professor at the George Washington University Law School; and Steve Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. An excerpt of their conversation, below, has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Dahlia Lithwick: I wanted to gauge where everyone’s head is at. We’ve all had time to read the immunity decision a few times, and the effect is seismic. But I’m just sitting with what this decision signals about how six members of this Supreme Court look at the Trump presidency, the events of Jan. 6, 2021, the threats Trump speaks aloud every single day, Project 2025 and the separation of powers. We got hyperfocused in this media cycle on Donald Trump himself, but I would like to talk about what all this says about the court.

Steve Vladeck: When we did the breakfast table last year, we talked about how the word of the term was arrogance. I think we’ve gone from arrogance to DGAF. That is my term for this term. Not just because of the Trump case, but because of the message the court has sent, in almost all of its major rulings, that it just doesn’t care about how half the country perceives it. In the Fischer case, for example: that its decision is going to be held out as some kind of massive victory and exoneration of the Jan. 6 defendants. The court doesn’t care, in the administrative law cases, that it’s going back on things that have been taken for granted for 30, 40, 50 years. And it doesn’t fear any retribution. What’s remarkable to me too is that sometimes the other five conservatives are going too far even for Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Mary Anne........

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