The cognitive dissonance of watching the end of Roe unfold online

"This is it," said SCOTUSblog media editor Katie Barlow on TikTok, posting live from outside the court. Barlow was one of the few correspondents on camera the moment the opinion was released. She was silent for a few seconds, glancing down at her phone, nodding, before looking up again and succinctly announcing the crux of it: "The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion." A reader on TikTok commented that it was hard to watch live as Barlow silently read the opinion, "to see the reality of the decision wash over you," adding: "Thank you for your work." It was a fitting way to enter the official post-Roe age: on platforms that can feel so personal to their publics, even as history unfolds.