Back-to-back rulings on guns and abortion have eliminated any doubt the US Supreme Court will be the transformational force Republicans envisioned when they filled three vacancies during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Less than two years after justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation just before the 2020 presidential election, the court’s conservatives laid bare their willingness to rewrite the nation’s lawbooks and upend its social and political dynamics.

They expanded gun rights on Thursday by striking down a century-old New York law that limited who could carry a handgun in public. Less than 24 hours later, they delivered what even conservative chief justice John Roberts called a “serious jolt to the legal system” by overturning Roe v Wade, which had protected abortion rights since 1973...