The nine justices of the United States Supreme Court returned to the bench on Monday, opening a new term loaded with some of the country's most divisive questions. Before the term wraps up in late June, the justices are expected to rule on gun bans, climate lawsuits, religious liberty, voting requirements and two major pillars of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
The term opened October 5 following a session that left few fully satisfied. Last term the court struck down Trump's sweeping global tariffs and his effort to end birthright citizenship, even as it used emergency rulings to let many other administration policies move ahead in the meantime.
All nine justices are back, preserving the 6-3 conservative majority that has steered the court's direction for five years. Summer speculation that a veteran conservative justice might retire, giving Trump the chance to name a successor with a Republican-controlled Senate, came to nothing.
The unchanged bench arrives at a tense moment for the institution. The court's approval rating sits underwater, Trump has periodically renewed his criticism of the justices, and some Democrats eyeing the 2028 presidential race have floated proposals to add seats to the court. The justices have already been pulled into disputes over the 2026 midterms and could face more election cases before November.
Monday's opening arguments featured Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. Commissioners of Boulder County, a case that could decide the future of climate lawsuits across the country. The city of Boulder and Boulder County, Colorado, sued Suncor and Exxon Mobil over alleged local damage tied to greenhouse-gas emissions, and the Colorado Supreme Court sided with the city in a divided ruling. The companies argue that federal law blocks state courts from hearing claims over emissions that originate far beyond the region. If the justices agree, dozens of similar suits filed in state courts could collapse; if the state-law claims survive, the litigation moves forward.
Later in the term, the court will hear Viramontes v. Cook County, a Second Amendment challenge to bans on AR-15-style rifles, with arguments expected in December. Legal scholars say the case could push the court's recent expansion of individual gun rights further, though the outcome is far from certain.
The justices will also weigh Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota, which asks whether federal voter-registration law overrides state rules requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register — an issue already in play in Arizona. The dispute lands just weeks before the November midterms, and the court's role in election law could grow larger before votes are cast.
Religious liberty is back on the docket as well. One case tests Colorado's law creating universal preschool programs open to all students, while a dispute involving Catholic preschools and LGBTQ families is working its way toward the justices. Last term the court split 4-4 on whether states can fund overtly religious charter schools after Justice Amy Coney Barrett sat out the case, leaving an Oklahoma court decision against such funding in place.
Immigration will produce some of the term's most closely watched arguments. The justices will decide whether the government can subject millions of immigrants in the country illegally to mandatory detention during deportation proceedings, reversing the government's longstanding reading of federal law on bond releases. They will also rule on the administration's practice of deporting migrants to third countries without letting them argue they would face harm there, with arguments set for December. The court late last month temporarily allowed the third-country policy to continue, and human rights groups say more than 25,000 migrants have already been sent to other countries under the policy.
Rulings in the major cases are expected by the end of June. Each decision will land in a political landscape sharpened by the midterm elections, where control of Congress — and the shape of Trump's remaining time in office — hangs in the balance. From who can register to vote to how immigrants are detained to whether energy companies can be sued in state courts for the effects of their emissions, the court's choices this term could redraw the reach of federal power for years.