US Supreme Court kicks off new term with important cases ahead
2024.10.07 08:30
By John Kruzel and Andrew Chung
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Cases concerning guns, transgender rights, online pornography, workplace discrimination and more are set to be heard during the U.S. Supreme Court’s new nine-month term that begins on Monday.
After a blockbuster previous term and action on a variety of cases during the summer on an emergency basis, the court is due to open its annual term, as is customary, on the first Monday of October. Arguments are set for two cases. One is a procedural dispute concerning unemployment compensation. The other involves deciding the proper jurisdiction for class action litigation targeting pet food companies.
The court’s 6-3 conservative majority has continued to move U.S. law rightward in recent years.
The first major case of the term comes on Tuesday when the justices hear arguments in an appeal by President Joe Biden’s administration of a judicial ruling against a U.S. regulation cracking down on “ghost guns,” which can be bought online and quickly assembled at home while being difficult to trace.
On Wednesday, the justices hear arguments in Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip’s bid for a new trial after a state court refused to overturn his conviction in a murder-for-hire scheme despite potentially exculpatory evidence.
Other cases looming during the during include legal disputes over a Republican-backed ban in Tennessee on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, Mexico’s lawsuit against U.S. gun companies accused of aiding the illegal trafficking of firearms and a Texas law requiring pornographic websites to verify the age of users to restrict access to minors.
The court also will consider whether workers from “majority backgrounds,” such as white or heterosexual people, should have a higher bar to win workplace discrimination claims in a case involving a straight Ohio woman who said she lost her job post to a gay man and was passed over for a promotion in favor of a gay woman.
The authority of federal agencies is on the court’s agenda in cases involving the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s power to license nuclear waste storage facilities and the Food and Drug Administration’s rejection of applications by companies to sell flavored vape products it deemed a health risk for young people.
The court’s last term ended on July 1 with its ruling, powered by the conservative justices, that recognized for the first time any form of presidential immunity from prosecution. The justices decided that Donald Trump cannot be prosecuted for official actions he took that were within his constitutional powers as president.
Another major ruling near the end of the last term dealt a major blow to federal regulatory power by overturning a 1984 precedent that had given deference to U.S. regulatory agencies in interpreting laws they administer.
The issue of ethics continues to simmer for the top U.S. judicial body. Under fire from some Democrats and other critics, the court last year announced its first code of conduct for the justices amid revelations related to undisclosed luxury trips and other financial ties to wealthy benefactors, though it lacked any enforcement mechanism.
Biden in July proposed 18-year term limits for the justices, who currently serve life tenures, and a binding code of conduct. Opposition by Republicans left his reforms with scant chance of enactment, and Biden’s presidency ends in January.
Trump is the Republican candidate facing Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.
After losing to his Democratic opponent Biden in 2020, Trump made false claims of widespread voting fraud, as he and his allies pursued numerous legal challenges. The justices declined to entertain those challenges, but could be called upon again in the coming months to deal with election disputes.
