The Supreme Court opened its 2026-27 term this week, hearing oral arguments in four cases and denying review in numerous other petitions. The argued cases include a climate change lawsuit against energy companies, an ERISA dispute over retirement fund investments, a Guam munitions disposal case under federal environmental laws, and a challenge to a law limiting disability benefits for incarcerated veterans.
On the interim docket, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay that blocks a 4th Circuit order requiring the Federal Communications Commission to act by noon on a challenge to extending candidate broadcasting rates to political parties and joint fundraising committees. The Trump administration and the National Republican Senatorial and Congressional Committees had requested the stay.
The stay joins a still-pending application from the Trump administration seeking to block a federal judge's order that bars the Bureau of Prisons from enforcing a policy preventing transgender inmates from obtaining gender-transition surgeries, hormone therapy, and social accommodations. Lawyers for the inmates urged the Court to deny that request.
Separately, a bipartisan group of states filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to take up whether states may regulate prediction markets like Kalshi, arguing that federal and state courts are divided on the issue. The NFL also filed a brief asking the Court to hear the case.