The court didn’t say States must do something, only that they can do something.

That overstates the case, though. In Brown v. Board of Ed., if the Court had ruled to allow states to segregate educational facilities, that would have been a big deal. So the distinction between allowing and requiring isn't really dispositive of the question. The real question is whether abortion is left to the states under the Constitution as amended. That decision seems to me a very big deal.

Dobbs is the very opposite of a nothing burger. Our politics may become more vibrant and absorbing as a result, and that will be a good thing. The decision is a wake-up call to activists, a reminder that it's not enough to rely on the guardrails; sometimes, you actually have to steer the car. (Maybe they'll fix the filibuster and gerrymandering while they're at it.)