We often describe the court through a familiar shorthand: three Republican-appointed conservatives (Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch) at the far right of the court; three Democratic-appointed liberals (Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson) on the other side; and a smaller group of three-Republican appointees (Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett) nearer …