Historian Jill Lepore argues that judicial originalism is not history. It artificially limits its sources to a few legal documents like the Federalist Papers, ignoring the broader context a professional historian would use. This creates a skewed, lawyerly version of the past rather than a genuine historical understanding.

Despite nearly identical backgrounds and conservative credentials, Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch are jurisprudentially diverging. Kavanaugh has become a key institutionalist aligning with the majority, while Gorsuch is often an outlier, demonstrating that personal history is a poor predictor of a justice's judicial philosophy on the court.

The ruling exposed a divide among conservative justices on the "major questions doctrine." Justices who previously used it to strike down regulations had to invent "convoluted reasons" why it shouldn't apply to Trump's tariffs, suggesting the doctrine's application can be inconsistent and politically influenced.

Companies are adopting AI for dynamic pricing and customer service, leading to inconsistent, personalized outcomes. This parallels the injustice of forced arbitration, where secret, non-precedential rulings create an arbitrary system. Both trends undermine the societal expectation that similar situations yield similar results.

A small group of roughly 20 elite lawyers now argues about half of all Supreme Court cases. These specialists overwhelmingly represent large corporations, creating an echo chamber where justices are constantly presented with a pro-corporate narrative, likely influencing the court's pro-business slant.

Viewing the Roberts Court as a single, unbroken entity is misleading. Its early phase was a 5-4 court where Justice Kennedy often sided with liberals, creating a sense of balance. His retirement and the appointment of three Trump justices created a new, more predictably conservative and lopsided era.

The Federal Arbitration Act was created for disputes between sophisticated merchants of equal bargaining power. Conservative Supreme Court justices, starting in the 1980s, controversially expanded its application to everyday consumer and employee contracts, which was never the law's original intent.

Contrary to the narrative of an ideologically rigid conservative Supreme Court, it is now reviewing and reversing cases from the highly conservative Fifth Circuit court more than any other. This data suggests a more nuanced, institutionalist dynamic at play rather than a simple partisan agenda.

Companies made arbitration clauses seem fair by offering to pay initial filing fees. Creative lawyers exploited this by initiating thousands of individual arbitrations simultaneously, forcing companies to incur millions in unexpected costs and creating powerful leverage for consumers.