The Supreme Court is back in session

The 2023-2024 term of the Supreme Court officially began yesterday. And, much like last term, it won’t be a boring one. 

Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of hot-button issues SCOTUS will be tackling:

• Guns: At issue is a 5th Circuit Court decision invalidating a federal law that bans the possession of guns for anyone who’s the subject of a domestic violence restraining order.
• Voting rights: SCOTUS will be weighing in on voting rights, including a case that tests what the NAACP calls "racial gerrymandering" in South Carolina and the state calls "partisan gerrymandering," per NPR. Under the court's prior decisions, racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional but partisan gerrymandering is not.
• Social media: Two topics will be in front of the Court this session: 1) the issue of online content moderation + free speech and 2) whether public officials are legally allowed to block constituents’ accounts on social media.
• Federal agencies’ ability to enact regulations: The Supreme Court this term will consider overturning the Chevron deference, which would take a sledgehammer to executive agencies’ wide authority to enact regulations, per The Hill. The doctrine has been in place nearly 40 years, and provides that when Congress is silent or vague on an issue, courts must uphold agencies’ actions if they’re based on a reasonable reading of the statute. Separately, SCOTUS justices will also decide whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding mechanism is constitutional.
• Purdue Pharma’s opioid settlement: The Supreme Court previously blocked the company’s $6 billion bankruptcy settlement, which granted Purdue’s former owners (the Sackler family) immunity from civil suits related to the opioid crisis.
• Abortion (most likely): The Court should soon be hearing a case tied to access to mifepristone, the pill that accounts for more than half of the abortions in America today. It was first approved by the FDA in 2000 and then approved in 2021 for safe use via telemedicine and by mail – but a 5th Circuit Court decision overrode key portions of the FDA approval. The case was sent by SCOTUS back to the 5th Circuit for further action, but seems all but certain to return to the justices soon.
• Healthcare + transgender students (most likely): At least 21 states have enacted laws banning hormone therapy, surgery or other forms of care for minors, and there’s a split among the lower courts as to whether such bans are constitutional.

👀 Looking ahead… It doesn’t appear SCOTUS’ term is set up to bring the country together – in fact, the opposite is much more likely.

In 2020, ~50% of both Republicans and Democrats approved of the court’s performance. But Gallup recently found that 56% of Republicans approve of the court, compared with 40% of independents and 23% of Democrats.