Supreme Court heads into new term with one eye on President Trump

When the Supreme Court kicks off a new, nine-month term on Monday, one key player will be noticeably absent: President Donald Trump. After months of near-constant confrontation with the White House, the nine justices will retake their seats behind the court’s mahogany bench without a docket full of Trump-driven, separation-of-powers blockbusters that defined the last term — from tariffs to birthright citizenship to the firing of once-independent government officials. The respite is unlikely to last. In the coming weeks, the justices will decide whether to wade into Trump’s messy defamation brawl with magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, his mass cancellation of federal research grants, whether the Department of Government Efficiency must provide records detailing its slashing of federal agencies last year, and the administration’s ban on transgender Americans serving in the military.