With the conclusion of the Supreme Court’s term looming at the end of June and a staggering 24 cases yet to be ruled upon, anticipations are high for how the court will rule on some of the country’s most controversial cases.
“Given the number of most-watched cases still unannounced, I cannot predict that the relatively low sharp divisions ratio will hold,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said regarding the Supreme Court’s new majority. Ginsburg went on to say that the retirement of Justice Kennedy, which gave conservatives and originalists a slim majority on the bench, was of the “greatest consequence for the current term, and perhaps for many terms ahead.”
Of the 24 cases which still need rulings, the three most keenly anticipated are the North Carolina/Maryland gerrymandering case, the cross-on-public-property case, and of course, the case of the contentious citizenship question on the U.S. census.
When asked why rulings on so many cases have taken so long, NPR’s legal correspondent Nina Totenberg said:
Well, I don't actually know, except one has to assume there are very big differences among the justices, between the court's five Conservatives and four Liberals - Justice Ginsburg hinted at that in a recent speech - but also, even among the Conservatives themselves, the rationales for how they're going to rule. There are rumors around that there's a lot of bad blood going on. But you couldn't tell that by what the justices say about each other, even privately when they know that they're being listened to.
The Supreme Court is expected to come forward with key decisions over the next two weeks. Until then, Americans will continue sitting on the edge of their seats, waiting to see what side will walk away constitutionally victorious.