A MAGA court in New Orleans is shaping the Supreme Court’s agenda

IN THE 1990s Joseph Overton came up with a metaphor for the spectrum of tolerable political views. Taking positions not found within the “Overton window”, he warned, puts you outside the bounds of acceptable opinion. But the centre does not hold: an idea seen as beyond the pale today might appear within the frame tomorrow. And as the zone shifts, positions that were once on the fringes of acceptability become more palatable.Overton applied his aperture to politicians, not to courts. But 20 years after the libertarian think-tanker’s death in a plane crash, the Overton window is an apt way to understand the most enduring (and evolving) impact of Donald Trump’s presidency: the federal judiciary’s sharp right turn.