Supreme Court's New Term to Address Guns, Voting, Transgender and Immigration Cases
The Court will hear challenges to semi-automatic rifle bans, proof-of-citizenship voting rules, parental rights in transgender care, and several Trump-era immigration policies during its upcoming term.
The Supreme Court will begin its new term on Monday with a docket that includes high-profile disputes over gun regulations, voting requirements, transgender-related parental rights, and immigration enforcement.
In the firearms arena, the justices are expected to consider whether bans on certain semi-automatic rifles, such as the AR-15, violate the Second Amendment. The challenge follows lawsuits by gun-rights groups against state bans that target specific weapon categories.
A case involving Arizona's proof-of-citizenship voter registration law will test the legality of requiring documents like birth certificates or passports to vote. Republicans are seeking to overturn a lower-court order that blocked parts of the law, arguing the requirements are permissible, while critics say they could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.
The Court will also hear a dispute over a Washington law that allows emergency shelters to refrain from notifying parents of runaway transgender youth seeking gender-affirming care. Parents argue the statute infringes on their right to raise children according to biological sex, echoing a recent decision that favored parents in a similar California case.
Two Catholic preschools in Colorado have sued the state after being denied public funding because they would not enroll LGBTQ students, alleging religious discrimination. The state maintains the funding criteria apply uniformly to all schools.
Three immigration cases will revisit policies enacted during the Trump administration. The primary case concerns mandatory detention without bond hearings for undocumented migrants, a practice lower courts have split on. A second case examines whether lawful permanent residents with criminal histories can be held indefinitely without a bond hearing. The third case involves former asylees whose status was revoked and who seek permanent residency, a right the government says is limited to those with active asylum protection.
Finally, the Court will consider a lawsuit filed by the city of Boulder, Colorado, and other municipalities against oil and gas companies over climate-change damages. The defendants argue that only the federal government has authority to pursue such claims, a position supported by the Trump administration.
These cases are expected to shape national policy on several contentious issues as the Court works through its term.