SCOTUS starts new term: gun rights, gerrymandering, access to abortion on a full agenda of important cases

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on Monday began a new nine-month term which will be packed with cases on major issues including gun rights, the legality of a GOP-drawn voting map, the power of federal agencies, and access to abortion, Politico reports.

On Tuesday October 3, the high court will hear a case challenging continued funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which was established following the 2008 financial crisis, Politico reports. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that funding the agency out of fees charged by the Federal Reserve is a violation of the constitutional requirement that Congress regularly appropriate money for the operation of federal agencies. “If the justices uphold that decision, numerous agencies like the Fed, various bank regulators, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and more could need emergency legislation to restructure their finances,” Politico noted in its report.

On October 11, arguments will be heard in a case brought by Republican South Carolina officials who want to restore a voting map that a federal court ruled had unconstitutionally “exiled” 30,000 Black voters in a “stark racial gerrymander,” Politico reports.

In a potentially far-reaching gun rights case to be heard on November 7, the nine high court justices will have to decide whether a 1994 federal law that bans people under domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms violates the Constitution’s Second Amendment, Politico reports. The law is being challenged by a Texas man who was charged with illegal gun possession while subject to a domestic violence restraining order for assaulting his girlfriend.

Following the SCOTUS revocation last year of 50-year federal right to abortion up to viability previously granted by the Court in Roe v Wade 1973, the justices are also expected to hear disputes on the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone and about alleged flaws in the FDA’s approval of it, Politico said.

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