The gavel came down Monday morning on one of the most consequential Supreme Court terms in recent memory. The justices opened the October 2026 term with oral arguments in a blockbuster climate case — local governments seeking financial damages from energy companies over alleged fossil-fuel harms, with potentially billions of dollars and decades of climate litigation on the line.
But the climate case is only the opening act. On the docket this term: a fresh wave of appeals from the Trump administration; whether states can ban semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15; whether states may require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections; and whether religious schools receiving taxpayer funding can participate in programs that discriminate against LGBTQ families.
The timing adds an electric charge. The court reconvenes less than a month before the November 3 midterm elections, and analysts expect the justices could be drawn into legal challenges over the results. Decisions handed down this term will shape American law on guns, voting, religion and climate for a generation.
Court watchers say the climate damages case alone could redefine corporate liability, while the citizenship-voting fight lands at the heart of the most contested political question in the country. Argument calendars for the term's heavyweight cases are expected within days.
