Aside from major disputes on issues like transgender rights and guns, the docket is fairly routine. That could change fast if the presidential race is contested.
The new Supreme Court term, which starts as the justices return to the bench on Monday, already features cases on transgender rights, untraceable “ghost guns” and whether Mexico may sue American firearms manufacturers. The coming months may also bring voting disputes that could decide the presidential election.
Still, after three momentous terms in which the court eliminated abortion rights, did away with race-conscious college admissions and created substantial immunity for presidential crimes, the docket is, for now at least, back to a sort of normalcy, promising decisions that will produce sharp divisions among the justices and ripple through American life but fall short of producing the titanic societal shocks of recent years.
The court’s lower profile, however brief, may come as a relief to the justices, who are bruised from the aftershocks of the recent decisions, from internal tensions over whether to give teeth to ethics guidelines announced last year and from approval ratings that continue to test modern lows.
In addition to the marquee cases on transgender rights and guns, the court will take on an array of notable matters.
One will decide a First Amendment challenge to a Texas law aimed at shielding minors from online pornography. Another will take a close look at a case in which Oklahoma is poised to execute a death row inmate over the objections of its own attorney general.
Others will scrutinize, yet again, the power of regulatory agencies, now in the context of the Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to discourage young people from using flavored e-cigarettes. The court will also hear a pair of major securities fraud cases against the tech giants Facebook and Nvidia.
