Supreme Court will begin its new term this week, and the justices are going to be deciding cases with critical implications for the Second Amendment, voting rights and climate change lawsuits. These rulings are likely to shape key legal questions and touch on some of the most contentious political battles over the coming year. The term comes as the justices confront dwindling trust in the court, as some polls suggest Americans find it to be increasingly political.
In the most recent term, the Supreme Court dealt with important legal questions related to President Donald Trump’s agenda including his tariffs and birthright citizenship, while also deciding on issues including voting rights and transgender athletes. The court has already decided to hear about 29 cases in its upcoming term, but additional cases are expected to be added in the coming weeks and months, so the docket is far from finished. Here is a look at three of the most important cases the court will decide.
Newsweek reached out to petitioners and respondents in each case for comment via email. The court is taking on a major voting rights case in Republican National Committee v. The case focuses on a challenge to Arizona election laws that require anyone registering to vote to provide “satisfactory evidence of citizenship.” It also requires election officials to remove anyone from the voter rolls if they obtain information that person is not a citizen.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals previously held that the federal law preempts those state laws, and petitioners from the Republican National Committee (RNC) are seeking relief from the Supreme Court, arguing the Ninth Circuit erred in its previous ruling. The court was asked to address two issues—whether the National Voter Registration Act or a federal consent decree “prohibit Arizona from requiring voter-registration applicants to produce” such evidence, and whether the act prohibits Arizona “from implementing a program within 90 days of a federal election to cancel the registrations of voters who are not U.S. citizens.” The court’s conservative majority is likely to “continue to support policies that make it harder to vote and will rule in favor of the RNC,” Paul Collins, professor of legal studies and political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told Newsweek. "This decision will likely continue on that path, undermining the American democratic experiment.” The court will also address a major Second Amendment issue in Viramontes v.
In this case, it will decide whether the 2nd and 14th Amendments guarantee the right of an individual to possess AR-15s and other similar semiautomatic rifles. The case was brought by Cutberto Viramontes, Christopher Khaya, the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., and the Second Amendment Foundation, challenging the Cook County, Illinois, government over a ban on AR-15s. The petitioners pointed to a quote by conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who in a prior opinion wrote that there is a “strong argument that AR-15s are in ‘common use’ by law-abiding citizens and therefore are protected by the Second Amendment.” “The AR-15 platform rifle is the modern descendant of the rifles that were borne by the militiamen of the Revolution and the pioneers who struck out West in search of a better life.
The question can be fairly asked, if the Second Amendment does not protect it, what could it possibly protect?” the petitioners wrote in a filing. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office wrote in a statement to Newsweek that they “look forward to vigorously defending this lawful ordinance before this nation's highest court.” “Assault weapons are instruments of war, designed to inflict the maximum amount of carnage and destruction, and they have no place in our communities. Countless victims have already endured the devastating impact of gun violence,” the statement reads.
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