The Supreme Court Is Back, and the Stakes Are Huge

It's the first Monday in October, which means the Supreme Court gets back to work. This year, the overriding question is how much leeway the court will give President Trump as he flexes presidential authority. Justices are set to issue definitive rulings on major Trump policies—ranging from the legality of his tariffs to his push for greater control over independent federal agencies—that have so far been addressed mainly through temporary, emergency decisions, report the Washington Post and the AP. Details:

• Among the headline issues is a case that could determine whether Trump can fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, a move with significant implications for the independence of the central bank. The case will be heard in January, per the New York Times.
• Other pending matters include challenges to Trump's sweeping tariffs, along with his efforts to end birthright citizenship, expedite deportations under a wartime law, and revoke protections for some 300,000 Venezuelan migrants.
• "It's hard to imagine bigger tests of presidential power than these potentially once-in-a-century separation-of-powers battles," Deepak Gupta, a lawyer at the firm Gupta Wessler, tells the Times. "And we're seeing more than one of them at once."
• Legal experts say the court, now dominated by a 6-3 conservative majority, will be forced to clarify its stance on presidential authority, either reinforcing Trump's expansive view or pushing back. "It really is going to be a showdown," Jennifer Nou, a law professor at the University of Chicago, tells the Post. "So many of the president's big-ticket constitutional issues and policy initiatives are quickly coming up before the court. All of this is coming to a head."
• The first big case of the new term is Tuesday, when the court will hear arguments about a Colorado law that bans "conversion therapy," aimed at changing a minor's sexual orientation or gender identity, per Reuters.
• The term also features major cases on voting rights, such as the legality of drawing majority-minority districts in Louisiana, and campaign finance rules.