The one case that could define the Supreme Court’s term – and legacy

Is the law really the law, if change in personnel results in dramatic change? That’s the question Americans are grappling with as a momentous Supreme Court term opens this week.

Justice Clarence Thomas, now the most senior member of the United States Supreme Court, admits he’s never been one to regularly hype the court. 

“I’m quite content not to get out on the road,” he said last month, recalling a conversation years ago when his late colleague Justice Antonin Scalia encouraged him to get out “and fly the flag.”

It...