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Cruel summer: The Supreme Court’s lengthy break in the spotlight

Political Theater, Episode 257

A worker with the Nuisance Abatement Graffiti Team power washes messages, including one that reads “our rights,” written in chalk on 1st Street Northeast in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on May 9, 2022.
A worker with the Nuisance Abatement Graffiti Team power washes messages, including one that reads “our rights,” written in chalk on 1st Street Northeast in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on May 9, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Supreme Court justices have it made: Not only do they get to remake American society with a few opinions, they get to take three months off afterward! Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has joked that “only Supreme Court justices and schoolchildren are expected to and do take the entire summer off.” So what do they do during that quarter-year break, and is it changing now that the high court has stepped into a more prominent political role? CQ Roll Call Legal Affairs Editor Todd Ruger joins the Political Theater podcast to talk about the life jurisprudence.

Show Notes:

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