Sometimes, the Supreme Court settles a question and it goes away. Loving v. Virginia, for example, effectively ended any political and legal debate about interracial marriage. But often, the Court’s epochal decisions redirect the flood tides of litigation and politics into new courses, whether they involve frontal attacks on the Court’s decision (as after Dred Scott v. Sandford), trench warfare over its implementation (as after Brown v. Board of Education), or efforts to punish private dissent (as after Obergefell v. Hodges).
If the Supreme Court goes all the way and overturns Roe v. Wade, the issue of abortion will not go away anytime soon. Many new fronts will be opened, and even if the nation eventually settles into a new status quo, it may be decades before we get there.
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