What the Supreme Court’s New Term Has in Store

Not every annual term of the Supreme Court is a blockbuster, and not every big case is on the docket when the term starts. The Court heard its first arguments of the year Monday morning. The justices added 15 cases to their docket on Friday, but they are barely halfway to the number of cases we’d expect by the end of the year.

The big unexploded ordnance lying under this term is the possibility of another election-eve or post-election case in which the presidential election hangs in the balance. There is nothing the justices would rather avoid, and their decisions this spring in Trump v. Anderson and Trump v. United States seemed timed and crafted to get Trump issues off the docket for the fall. But we can’t know yet if they’ll be able to dodge that bullet until we see how Election Day shakes out.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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Not every annual term of the Supreme Court is a blockbuster, and not every big case is on the docket when the term starts. The Court heard its first arguments of the year Monday morning. The justices added 15 cases to their docket on Friday, but they are barely halfway to the number of cases we’d expect by the end of the year.

The big unexploded ordnance lying under this term is the possibility of another election-eve or post-election case in which the presidential election hangs in the balance. There is nothing the justices would rather avoid, and their decisions this spring in Trump v. Anderson and Trump v. United States seemed timed and crafted to get Trump issues off the docket for the fall. But we can’t know yet if they’ll be able to dodge that bullet until we see how Election Day shakes out.