Court Clash

Chief Justice John Roberts gaveled in the new Supreme Court term Monday, and the docket is stacked. Religion. Guns. Climate. Immigration.

Roberts opened arguments at 10 a.m. EDT alongside his eight colleagues, Fox News reported. Gun bans and election law cases are queued too, with more coming as the year goes on.

First up, a climate fight. Justices will decide whether state and local governments can sue energy companies over claims they misled the public about fossil fuels' damage, NPR reported.

Harvard Law School's Deepak Gupta told NPR the companies broadcast the opposite of what their own scientists knew. Most court watchers call it a tough case for environmentalists, according to NPR.

Religion looms large too. A Colorado case could force taxpayers to fund religious charter schools that bar LGBTQ students and parents, NPR reported. Michigan State University law professor Frank Ravitch told NPR the court's approach to church and state has flipped from a few decades ago.

The bigger shift might be procedural. Full court rulings on emergency appeals now outnumber rulings on fully argued cases two to one, Georgetown law professor Stephen Vladeck told NPR. A new phenomenon, he called it.

Lower court judges on both sides complain the brief, unexplained emergency orders leave them without guidance, NPR reported.

The Trump administration has leaned hard on that fast track. Since 2025, the Justice Department has won more than 70 percent of its emergency applications before the court, Fox News reported, including approval to keep building the White House ballroom. Not every ruling has broken its way.

Thursday, the court blocked a bid to use a Trump-backed congressional map in Missouri, leaving the old map in place for the midterms, Al Jazeera reported. Justice Brett Kavanaugh had already rejected the administration's request without sending it to the full court, Al Jazeera reported.

Those splits have fed wider arguments over the court's legitimacy, Fox News reported. President Trump blasted three of his own appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, in a Truth Social post after a loss on mail ballot rules, writing that they are "a shell of their original selves," according to Fox News.

Republican lawmakers have called for impeaching judges who rule against the administration. Democratic leaders have renewed calls to restructure the court, Fox News reported.

Roberts faces that pressure as an institutionalist, appellate attorney Thomas Dupree told Fox News, trying to hold old traditions at a time when institutions are under strain.

One justice may not stay much longer. Samuel Alito is 76. In an interview airing Monday, he told CBS News he thinks about retiring every year at his age, The Guardian reported. He chose to stay after the term that ended in June because he felt he could "still make a valuable contribution."