Supreme Court Opens New Term: Guns, Climate, Voting Rights on the Line

The U.S. Supreme Court gavels in a new term on Monday, October 5, 2026 — and the docket is loaded with cases that could reshape gun rights, climate policy, voting rules, and immigration enforcement across America. With a 6-3 conservative majority and midterm elections weeks away, the coming months could produce some of the most consequential rulings in years.

The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. The court's new term opens Monday, Oct. 5.

Every first Monday of October, the nine justices open a new term and begin hearing arguments. This time, the stakes are unusually high. The term opens with a landmark climate case, peaks in December with fights over assault-style rifle bans and voter registration rules, and runs through cases on religious liberty, presidential power, and the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. More cases will be added through the winter, and all major decisions are expected by the end of June 2027.

Last term, the court issued some of its most dramatic rulings in recent memory — striking down President Donald Trump's tariffs and his executive order on birthright citizenship. According to Reuters and other outlets tracking the court's docket, this term may be just as consequential, touching everything from who can buy a rifle in Illinois to whether cities can sue oil giants for the cost of a warming planet.

Big Oil on Trial First

Boulder, Colorado, where city and county officials are suing ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy over climate-change costs.

The very first argument of the term, heard Monday, asks whether fossil fuel companies can be held liable in state court for helping drive climate change. Boulder, Colorado — along with Boulder County — sued ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy, alleging violations of state law and seeking unspecified monetary damages for the costs the community has incurred dealing with the impacts of climate change.

The companies appealed after a lower court let the litigation move forward, asking the justices to shut the case down. Republican attorneys general have urged the court to block such lawsuits, warning of a flood of copycat litigation. Michael Williams, the solicitor general for West Virginia, told reporters that one state should not be able to regulate activities taking place in another — arguing the case is really about who gets to set American energy policy.

Dozens of similar lawsuits have been filed by cities and states across the country, so the ruling could decide the fate of an entire legal movement. Legal experts also say the decision could have spillover effects far beyond climate: according to reporting on the case, the court's reasoning about state versus federal authority could shape how states are allowed to regulate emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

The Gun Case That Could Reshape the Second Amendment

On December 2, the justices will hear what could be the most important gun rights cases since 2008. The court has taken up challenges to bans on assault-style rifles — including the AR-15 — in Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, a Connecticut case. Lower courts upheld both bans, rejecting arguments that they violate the Second Amendment's right to "keep and bear arms."

Gun rights groups and the challengers argue that Supreme Court precedents protect these firearms, describing them as in "common use" among law-abiding Americans. Former solicitor general Don Verrilli — who once argued for the Obama administration — has predicted the court would rule against the bans, noting that millions of Americans own such rifles.

Georgetown Law professor Michele Goodwin said the case is significant because it would continue the court's push to expand individual Second Amendment liberties. "We don't know how the Supreme Court would rule, but there are some tea leaves that we could follow," Goodwin told Gray DC. "The Second Amendment has truly gained speed before the United States Supreme Court."

The court already issued two rulings last month widening gun rights, according to Reuters — and a ruling striking down assault-style rifle bans would be its boldest move yet on firearms.

Voting Rights in the Crosshairs

On December 8, attention turns to the ballot box. In Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota, the justices will hear a Republican-led bid to revive Arizona voter restrictions — including stiffer proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registrants and provisions to purge state voter rolls of alleged non-U.S. citizens.

A lower court halted key provisions of Arizona's law, finding they violated a federal voting registration statute. President Trump's administration has backed key elements of the appeal. Critics of the Arizona measure say it adds extra mandates for voting that unfairly target Latino, Native American, and student voters — groups that tend to favor Democratic candidates.

The case lands just weeks after the November 3 midterm elections, and legal analysts say its outcome could shape voting rules nationwide. As Georgetown's Goodwin put it, the core question is whether federal voting law "would prohibit what is basically, in essence, happening in Arizona."

Trump's Immigration Crackdown Under the Microscope

President Trump's immigration policies will also come under Supreme Court scrutiny this term. The justices are expected to examine whether the administration can detain immigrants without offering them a chance to apply for bond — and whether it can deport migrants to countries other than their own without letting them argue they would face persecution or torture there.

These cases arrive as the administration's crackdown has expanded across the country. The court has already allowed several immigration-related Trump policies to take effect through emergency orders, and a full ruling on detention and third-country deportations would set lasting precedent for how the government treats millions of immigrants.

Religion, AI and the Shadow Docket

The term's calendar also includes major religious liberty disputes. In November, the justices will decide whether the Catholic Church can refuse to admit the children of gay parents to a taxpayer-funded preschool in Colorado. Last term, the court deadlocked 4-4 on whether taxpayer money could fund overtly religious charter schools after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself — leaving an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision blocking such funding in place.

The justices could also be asked to rule on whether Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, after the conservative 5th Circuit appeals court upheld the law despite a 1980 Supreme Court decision striking down a similar measure.

Beyond the formal docket, all eyes are on the court's expanding emergency docket — the so-called shadow docket — where an increasing number of major cases have landed. There, the justices decide issues in days or weeks rather than months, often without full arguments from both sides. According to Goodwin, the Trump administration has effectively had "a speed pass" to the Supreme Court through this route, meaning lower courts have often been unable to weigh in before the justices act.

Legal analyst Jonathan Turley wrote that the term is shaping up to be "another big year" at the court. And Brianne Gorod of the Constitutional Accountability Center cautioned that more Trump-related cases are almost certainly coming: disputes over the administration's push to unilaterally cancel spending mandated by Congress, and its efforts to enact worldwide tariffs, are still working their way through lower courts.

What This Means

A Lady Justice statue. Rulings in this term's biggest cases are expected by the end of June 2027.

This term is shaping up as a defining one for the court's 6-3 conservative majority. On guns, the justices have steadily moved American law rightward this decade with an expansive view of the Second Amendment — and the assault-style rifle cases give them an opening to go further than ever before. On climate, a ruling for ExxonMobil and Suncor could slam the door on dozens of lawsuits seeking to make fossil fuel companies pay for warming-related costs. On voting and immigration, the court will effectively referee some of the country's most divisive fights.

The political backdrop makes everything sharper. With the midterms on November 3 and the court already deciding election-adjacent disputes, its rulings will land in an election year atmosphere — and could influence how Americans vote and how those votes are counted.

What Happens Next

Arguments begin Monday, October 5, with the Boulder climate case. The religious liberty, gun, and voting rights arguments follow in November and December. New cases — potentially including fights over Trump's tariffs and spending powers — are likely to be added over the winter.

Rulings in the term's biggest cases are expected by the end of June 2027, setting up a spring of blockbuster decisions. For now, the nine justices will spend the coming months hearing arguments — and America will spend them waiting to find out just how far this court is willing to go.