Familiar, divisive social issues on Supreme Court agenda

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court's new term began Monday with no cross words between the justices, although a steady stream of divisive social issues awaits them in the coming months.

In their first public meeting since a number of high-profile decisions in June displayed passionate, sometimes barbed disagreement, the justices were deferential to each other even as they engaged in typically aggressive questioning of lawyers.

The court also rejected hundreds of appeals that piled up over the summer, including one from the Obama administration that claimed it will have a much tougher time prosecuting insider-trading cases because of a New York lower court ruling.

Without comment, the high court left in place a decision by the federal appeals court in New York last year that threw out the insider trading convictions of two high-profile hedge fund managers.

Just after 10 a.m., Chief Justice John Roberts formally closed the previous term, most notable for its decision extending same-sex marriage nationwide, and began the new one.

Consensus almost certainly will give way to division when the court takes up cases later this term dealing with abortion, religious objections to birth control, race in college admissions and the power of public-sector unions. Cases on immigration and state voting restrictions also could make it to the court in the next nine months.

The term will play out against the backdrop of the presidential campaign, in which some candidates are talking pointedly about the justices and the prospect of replacing some of them in the next few years. Four justices are in their 80s or late 70s, led by Ginsburg.

Commentators on the left and right say the lineup of cases suggests conservatives will win more often than lose over the next few months, in contrast to the liberal side's success last term in gay marriage, health care and housing discrimination, among others.