Dear SCOTUS justices: You're getting trolled on "legitimacy," so stop responding

The Dobbs majority and dissent vigorously disagreed on Casey’s conception of “legitimacy.” Ultimately, the Dobbs majority concluded that the Court should not concern itself with outward-looking concepts like “legitimacy.” The Chief, as well as the Dobbs dissenters, insisted the Court should take account of such concerns. …

Of course, the irony is that the majority restored an issue to the political process, while the dissent would have let five robed lawyers continue to dictate abortion policy nationwide. Kagan’s concerns about legitimacy are better suited for Obergefell, which wrested the issue of marriage from the political process based on penumbras. For progressives, legitimacy is defined as maintaining the precedents of the Warren and Burger Courts. When the Court created those precedents out of thin air, legitimacy was never in question. But when the Court exorcises those phantasmal precedents, legitimacy comes into doubt. Indeed, for progressives, stared decisis is defined as stand by the precedents of the Warren and Burger Courts. The script at this point is predictable.

My advice to the Supreme Court justices: whenever anyone asks about the Court’s legitimacy, the answer should be “next question.” Or, if they are feeling more loquacious, “Our job is to decide cases based on law, without fear or favor of public perception.”