What Will Brett Kavanaugh's Influence on American Politics Actually Be?

Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court has been widely predicted to plunge the court—and American law with it—into a new conservative era.

The main areas of concern include reproductive rights, LGBT rights, affirmative action, environmental regulations, criminal punishments, gun rights, and voting rights.

But these prognoses fail to heed some fundamental distinctions among the decisions of the Supreme Court, and may create a mistaken impression of the court's power and the inevitable trajectory of American law.

Simply put, Supreme Court rulings are often not the last word on a matter.

The United States Supreme Court performs two primary tasks: interpretation of federal laws and interpretation of the federal Constitution.