In his dissent, Breyer complains about the circumstances in which the decision was made.

“These questions,” he writes, “call for considered decisionmaking, informed by full briefing and argument.” As a substantive matter, that is simply not true in this case; the merits here were abundantly obvious, and the fact that the “lower courts have split on this question” is more an indictment of the unseriousness of many of our judges than an indication that the matter at hand was a thorny one. But even if it were, Biden’s extraordinary behavior foreclosed the possibility of a more orderly legal process. In the days following the Court’s initial opinion, Biden made it clear that he understood the CDC had acted illegally and that it could not continue to do so. He had, an aide confirmed, “not only kicked the tires,” but “double, triple, quadruple checked.” “The bulk of the constitutional scholars,” Biden said himself, “say it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster.” And yet he ordered it anyway, while publicly admitting that he was gaming the system to buy time. There is not a court in the world that would have taken that sitting down.

That Biden has been thwarted in his attempt to usurp the role of Congress is welcome. That he was not uniformly chastised is not. There are certain moments in American political life in which an institutional reprimand is necessary, and this was one of those times. That, instead, the president will be able to point to the Court and pretend that this case represented a quotidian ideological dispute is a great shame. And, as Biden’s presidency lurches on, and his power wanes as the consequences of his mistakes pile up, both desperation and his innate contempt for the Constitution will be likely to encourage him to attempt a similar ploy once again. We have been warned.