WASHINGTON — The nine justices of the Supreme Court open a new term Monday with a docket that reaches into the front lines of American politics and culture — and few friends.
In the coming months, the justices will take up climate change, gun control, the role of religion in public life and the rights of parents whose children are transgender, according to the Wall Street Journal. They will also resolve the legality of two core pieces of President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda.
The new term begins under unusual strain. Trump has renewed his periodic attacks on the justices’ integrity. Leading Democrats, eyeing the 2028 election, are embracing proposals to blunt the court’s conservative bent by adding more members. The court’s public approval rating is underwater, and there are signs of friction between the high court and the lower courts it supervises.
Last term revolved around Trump-related fights. The justices struck down the president’s global tariffs and his bid to end birthright citizenship, drawing ire from Trump even as the court used temporary emergency rulings to greenlight many of his other policies, the Journal reported.
So far this term centers more on the traditional culture-war disputes that have defined the court’s shift to the right over the past two decades. The docket is far from full, and other charged cases, including a dispute over school displays of the Ten Commandments, are likely to be added soon. The court, which has already weighed in on litigation affecting the 2026 midterm elections, may also be called on to referee further election-related disputes before November.
It is tradition for the justices to begin taking up cases on the first Monday of October. Oral arguments in the term’s first cases begin this week.
