“So it should have left well enough alone.” It isn’t often such informal language is used in a writing from a Supreme Court Justice, particularly when referring to her colleagues. The “it” in the sentence is the majority in the United States Supreme Court. But the newest member of the nation’s highest bench is on a roll these days and doesn’t care who it bothers.

The Supreme Court has once again issued an unsigned opinion lifting a District court’s preliminary injunction that prevented the administration from firing thousands of federal employees. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the lone dissent in a voice that sounded both frustrated and unusually familiar, as she pointed out that Congress is the branch with the power to reorganize federal agencies, not the president.

The lawsuits against DOGE actions and Executive Order 14210 will proceed through the courts, and if the plaintiffs prevail, they will win compensation that may even include reinstatement in their jobs. So, all is not lost to the employees at the center of the controversy.

Nevertheless, the nation’s first Black female justice continues to pick a fight with her colleagues. She seems most concerned with standing up for the age-old principle of separation of powers, even when other justices persist in maintaining the legal wiggle room of preventing District level courts from exercising power over the president.

There’s an old saying: everybody else can’t be wrong. Apparently, Justice Jackson disagrees. History may well agree with her.