Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the court’s liberal wing, may have previewed on Wednesday the “gloves are off” tone of the next several weeks as the justices work to wrap up their 2021 term.

Sotomayor has never been reluctant to use strong language in her dissents. But in Wednesday’s 6-3 decision in Egbert v. Boule, her description of a “restless and newly constituted court” seemed to signal major changes ahead by the court’s six conservative justices and bitter dissents to follow.