Biden says it would be a 'mistake' to try to expand the Supreme Court

[In It to Win It]

29. I think many voters don't connect the Supreme Court to the impact of its decision

Anecdotally, I've met many people that couldn't connect legally recognized same-sex marriage with the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision.

Many people can connect the Supreme Court to abortion. On the other side, many can't. Many people that care about abortion can't link the Supreme Court decision to an abortion ban in their state.

I'm in Florida. We have our own state-level Roe. Florida Supreme Court precedent protects abortion in the same way Roe did at the federal level, pursuant to our state constitution's express right to privacy. Yet, we have an 15-week abortion ban in effect that many people can't link to the Florida Supreme Court. Five justices on the Florida Supreme Court (out of seven justices) were facing elections in 2022. Four of the justices facing elections in 2022 voted to let that the 15-week ban remain in effect. They all received a higher margin of victory than Ron DeSantis.

It's way that we (the general "we" ) talk about the Court. Supreme Courts, both state and federal, have been these mysterious institutions where the many people they govern can't name a single justice. They can't name a decision that the court(s) has made and therefore cannot link the impact of those decisions to the Supreme Court(s).

That's starting to change, but not fast enough IMO. In the same way that the press gives intimate details about Senators and House Reps, I want the Supreme Court covered in the same way. Cover the justices like the politicians that they are. Don't just wait for opinion day. When they do cover their decision, cover them in ways regular people can understand. Cover them in a "kitchen table issues" kind of way, rather than just regurgitating what's in the opinion as they usually do.