The Supreme Court reconvened on Monday and is scheduled to hear many impactful cases that address voting rights, religious rights and more. File Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo
The Supreme Court reconvened on Monday and has oral arguments scheduled for cases ranging from voting rights to redistricting over the next two months and beyond.
Among scheduled cases are those involving President Donald Trump’s ability to impose tariffs without congressional input and various states’ redistricting efforts, including in Louisiana, which is accused of using race to revise its federal House district maps, according to Roll Call.
The Louisiana case requires the court to decide if redistricting based on race might violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The court also is likely to hear several emergency cases as they arise during its current term that lasts through December, such as a potential emergency hearing regarding birthright citizenship.
The court on Tuesday heard oral arguments regarding Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors, which might involve psychoanalysis, religious counseling, behavior modification or other means to encourage gay people to become heterosexual.
Colorado Springs therapist Kaley Chiles has challenged Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law of 2019 that makes it illegal for mental health therapists and others to provide conversion therapy for clients age 17 and younger.
Chiles says the law violates her First Amendment rights by imposing a “gag order on counselors,” while state attorneys say the law regulates acceptable treatments and argue that conversion therapy has been proven ineffective and potentially harmful.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that enables the state to enforce the law while Chiles’ legal challenge proceeds through the court system.
Other October oral arguments include whether or not a New York man could be tried and punished for the same criminal act in state and federal courts alike and if Congress and others can challenge respective state laws regarding how mail-in ballots are counted.
The court’s November docket includes a challenge to the president’s Liberty Day tariffs and subsequent tariff declarations without congressional input.
The U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Circuit Appellate Court in Washington ruled against President Donald Trump declaring a trade emergency to unilaterally impose tariffs on other nations.
The court in November will hear a religious rights case arising from the Louisiana Department of Corrections forcibly cutting the hair of a practicing Rastafarian while he was jailed for five months in 2020.
Another November oral argument regards whether a state can execute a death row inmate determined to be intellectually disabled after completing several intelligence-quotient tests.
Yet another impactful November case regards a U.S. military member who was wounded by a suicide bomber and wants to sue the government contractor who employed that bomber.
Oral arguments also are scheduled to determine if a government contractor is subject to sovereign immunity when doing work for the federal government.
The Supreme Court annually convenes on the first Monday in October and stays active through June and sometimes into July when necessary to complete its docket.
