What the liberal justices’ scorching dissent reveals about the US supreme court

Those are voices from the supreme court itself: the words of its three liberal justices - Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor - in their scorching and thorough joint dissenting opinion on a decision by their body which has fundamentally altered the lives of millions of Americans.

In the opinion, the three liberal justices repeatedly warn of the devastating impact of the end of Roe, while emphasizing that the majority's ruling breaks with core tenets of court procedure.

That criticism echoes throughout the liberals' other dissenting opinions of the court's most recent term, which wrapped up late last month, revealing that America's top legal body - with huge power over American life - is deeply split. And while huge attention has been paid to the rulings of the rightwing majority, the liberal dissents also offer an insight into the state of America - and a scary warning for its future.

The court's last term was one of the most consequential in recent memory, as the conservative majority handed down major decisions on everything from abortion rights to gun restrictions and climate policy. Those decisions were often met with a dissenting opinion from the court's liberal justices, who voiced alarm about the direction and the velocity of the conservatives' rulings.

Taken together, the dissents written by the three liberal justices this term send a clear warning about an increasingly radical court that is abandoning long-held principles and even the facts of a case to enact an extreme conservative agenda in America.

While supreme court opinions can frequently become mired in legalese that is incomprehensible to the average reader, the wording of the liberals' dissents is often simple and direct. The opinions can read like a desperate attempt to reach beyond the court's standard audience of legal experts to speak to the millions of people who will feel the impact of these rulings.

"Today, the court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a constitutional violation," Sotomayor wrote in her dissenting opinion to conservatives' decision in Carson v Makin. She concluded: "With growing concern for where this court will lead us next, I respectfully dissent."