East Wake Times

The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to begin hearing testimony this month on a plethora of issues that include 'Dreamers,' LGBTQ rights, religion and abortion.

In the case of the Dreamers issue, the court will weigh the matter of whether President Donald Trump is within his constitutional rights as commander-in-chief to revoke the Obama-era protections for more than 700,000 young immigrants, all of whom were brought to the U.S. illegally as young children. In mid-November, the issue will go before the court, where a team of Trump attorneys are arguing that the Obama order known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is unconstitutional.

The court of nine justices – five conservatives appointed by Republicans and four liberals installed by Democrats – will also render a verdict on  the question of whether the Civil Rights Act, enacted more than half a century ago to provide job protections based on sex, extends to include LGBTQ employees. Also front and center for the high court during the session is an abortion case where the issue of regulations for doctors who perform such procedures will be argued.  

Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown Law School director Irv Gornstein thinks he knows just how the ideological debates will play out.

"We will likely see a court moving further and faster in a rightward direction," he told the Charlotte Observer. "The docket almost guarantees it."

Nothing is etched in stone, particularly given the somewhat freestyle legal nature of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who seemingly prides himself on making sure that the high court readily flexes its independence.

"When you live in a politically polarized environment, people tend to see everything in those terms," Roberts said during a recent interview. "That is not how we at the court function."

In keeping true to his word, Roberts was recently the deciding vote in a 5-4 decision that thwarted the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.