The Supreme Court Begins its New Nine-Month Term

The Supreme Court has begun its new nine-month term. The Court will hear cases concerning guns, transgender rights, online pornography, and workplace discrimination. This week’s arguments are set for two cases; one on a procedural dispute concerning unemployment compensation and the other involved deciding the proper jurisdiction for class action litigation targeting pet food companies. Other cases looming during the term include legal disputes over a Republican-backed ban in Tennessee on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, Mexico's lawsuit against U.S. gun companies accused of aiding the illegal trafficking of firearms and a Texas law requiring pornographic websites to verify the age of users to restrict access to minors.

Also, the Court will consider whether workers from "majority backgrounds," such as white or heterosexual people, should have a higher bar to win workplace discrimination claims in a case involving a straight Ohio woman, who said she lost her job post to a gay man and was passed over for a promotion in favor of a gay woman. Other cases on the agenda include the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's power to license nuclear waste storage facilities and the FDA’s rejection of applications by companies to sell flavored vape products it deemed a health risk for young people.

The Court rebuffed the Biden administration in an abortion clash, leaving intact an appeals court decision favoring Texas in a fight over the availability of the procedure in hospital emergency rooms. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals said Texas, which has a broad abortion ban, was not bound by a Department of Health and Human Services memorandum requiring hospitals to offer the procedure on an emergency basis to protect a mother’s health. The administration had asked the high court to order reconsideration of that ruling.

The Court declined to review an Alabama ruling that triggered concerns about in vitro fertilization availability by allowing couples to pursue wrongful death lawsuits over the accidental destruction of frozen embryos. A fertility clinic and hospital had asked the court to review the Alabama Supreme Court decision that a couple, who had a frozen embryo destroyed in an accident, could pursue a lawsuit against them for the wrongful death of their “minor child.” Justices turned down the petition without comment.