The Supreme Court begins its new term with election disputes that are in the air but not yet on the agenda

WASHINGTON (AP) – Transgender rightsthe regulation of “Ghost Weapons” and the death penalty highlight the Supreme Court term that begins Monday, with the prospect of the court intervening in voting disputes lurking in the background.

The judges return to the bench at a time dwindling public trust in court and calls limit their term of office to 18 years have that broad supportincluding support from Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s nominee for the White House.

Whether by design or coincidence, the justices are hearing fewer high-profile cases than in recent legislative sessions, which saw sweeping decisions made by the 6-3 conservative majority Presidential immunity, abortion, WeaponsAnd positive action.

The shorter timeline would allow them to easily add election cases as they come before the Supreme Court in the run-up to the Nov. 5 election between Republican Donald Trump and Harris or immediately afterward.

“I think there are legal issues that arise from the political process. And that’s why the Supreme Court needs to be prepared to respond if the need arises,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told CBS News last month in an interview to promote her new memoir, “Lovely One.”

The court’s involvement in election disputes could depend on how close the result is and whether the justices’ intervention would affect the outcome, David Cole, the outgoing legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said at a recent event in Washington.

“I don’t think the court wants to get involved, but maybe it has to,” Cole said.

The court rejected multiple challenges by Trump and his allies to the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden. It has been nearly a quarter century since the Supreme Court effectively decided the 2000 presidential election, in which Republican George W. Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore.

When the justices meet on Monday morning at a date set by federal law, they will shake hands as they always do. Shortly after 10 a.m. they will emerge from behind freshly cleaned heavy red curtains and sit on the curved mahogany bench, Chief Justice John Roberts in the center chair and his eight colleagues in order of seniority.

There will probably be smiles and private jokes shared. But the kindness of this moment will not resolve tensions that have been barely concealed.

Over the summer, two justices, Elena Kagan and Jackson, expressed support for tightening the new ethics code, which has yet to be enforced.

That the New York Times leaked the contents of a memo Roberts wrote last winter outlining his approach to the court’s decision on presidential immunity “was nothing short of shocking,” Supreme Court lawyer Lisa Blatt said last week in Washington at a preview of the upcoming decision term.

Two years ago, Politico obtained the draft decision overturning the landmark abortion case Roe v. Calf.

“Something actually feels broken,” Blatt said. Describing her experience arguing in court, she said some judges “just seem visibly frustrated.”

Important cases will dominate the court’s calendar from Tuesday. The court will challenge the Biden administration’s attempt to regulate hard-to-trace “ghost guns” that have been showing up at crime scenes in increasing numbers. The Supreme Court intervened in the case after the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated the regulation.

In the last parliamentary term, the Conservatives voted 6 to 3 to repeal a gun regulation that banned weapons Bump stocksan accessory that allows some weapons to fire at speeds comparable to machine guns. Bump stocks were used in the country’s deadliest modern mass shooting in Las Vegas.

A day after the gun case, judges will address the latest twist Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip long search for freedom. His case is the rare instance in which prosecutors have acknowledged trial errors that led to Glossip’s conviction and death sentence.

The highest-profile case on the agenda so far is a fight over transgender rights that is taking center stage State bans on gender-affirming care. There will probably be arguments about this in December.

Republican-led states have passed a range of restrictions on transgender people’s health care, participation in school sports, use of restrooms and drag shows. The administration and Democratic-led states have expanded protections for transgender people. The Supreme Court separately barred the administration from enforcing it a new federal regulation which aims to protect transgender students.

The case before the Higher Regional Court This is a law in Tennessee that restricts puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors. About half of states have enacted similar restrictions.

There is also a … on offer for late autumn Attraction from the adult entertainment industry to repeal a Texas law that requires pornographic websites to verify the age of their users.

Only about half of the court calendar for the term is filled, and several large cases could be added. This includes the push by Republican-led states and conservative legal institutions to further restrict federal authorities.

The immediate target is the way the Federal Communications Commission funds telephone services for rural and low-income people and broadband services for schools and libraries.

The case, which the government has appealed to the Supreme Court, could give justices a chance to revive a legal doctrine known as non-delegation that hasn’t been used to strike down laws in nearly 90 years. Several conservative justices have expressed support for the idea of ​​limiting the powers that Congress can delegate to federal agencies.